Death Road of Despair and Hope: The Series
by GKinni
Summary: In a world without the killing game, sixteen Ultimate Students participate in a game/reality show where they will challenge strange obstacle courses and interact with each other in a "confined" environment. Actually, mostly the second thing. The challenges are pretty much just an excuse, really.
1. First Challenge

Ultimates. That was the title given to young people that displayed remarkable skill at a particular Talent. In the society of the future, the role of the Ultimates was greater than it had ever been in the past. They were the inspiration for all the children and teenagers who had to find their own way in the world.

However, simply spreading awareness of their feats proved not enough to really inspire the population to sufficient levels. So various alternatives were tried, of which the most successful were those that involved creating programs focused on the ultimates, specially on situations where they were out of their comfort zone.

And many of those programs came and went, each of them trying new gimmicks and refining the formula... Until one single series managed to stand above all others.

Its name was Death Road of Despair and Hope.

The main gimmick of that show was not difficult to understand. Sixteen ultimates were gathered for a series of events, some of them individual while others were in groups, some were competitive while others were cooperative... But they all had a single thing in common: They were based upon crossing a series of obstacles.

And of course, the obstacles were changed every time, and every season created obstacles well suited for the cast of ultimates that were going to attempt it, preventing a few from monopolizing victories just due to having particular talents. And yet, perhaps the most important part of the show was the fact that the ultimates lived together for a long period, and their interactions that showed the more normal sides of the Ultimates became one of the biggest focuses of the show.

A new season was about to start. And there was going to be a whole new group of Ultimates for the fans to get to know. It all began with a black and white bear speaking into a microphone.

-0-

"Welcome everyone!" He announced grandly, as the lights on the stage where he was standing started to turn on "It is time for us to start a new season!"

There was no studio audience for the program(at least not at that moment), but if there were, the resulting cheers would be enough to match any kind of music show you could care to name. The series was incredibly popular, and the start of a new season was always popular, so the livestream was getting amazing numbers.

Perhaps an explanation was necessary. The format of Death Road of Despair was slightly unusual. The episodes shown on television were footage that had been edited for viewing convenience, just like most reality shows. However, there were also paid live streams of any "events", not only the platforming challenges, but also games, shows or similar things created by the ultimates themselves. As well as constant streams from special locations, like the cafeteria and the research labs.

But those that didn't have the time to watch streams also weren't left in the lurch. The DVDs containing the episodes also came with a lot of extra footage.

Still, all that only meant that the show knew how to make money. So let's go back to the story.

"Hereeeeeeeeeee's Monokuma!" The bear introduced himself "However, you already knew that, I'm sure. What you guys are really interested in are the ultimates!"

He made another pause to let the nonexistent cheer calm down, and then continued "And you shall find that we have quite an interesting assortment this time. So, without further ado, let's begin introducing our contestants..."

A side of the stage lit up, revealing a corridor leading to a tunnel.

"First, we have the traveler who went all over the world, including the most dangerous places, and has seen and did more before his sixteenth birthday than most people manage on their entire lives! I am talking about the Ultimate Adventurer, Rantaro... Amami!"

From the tunnel, a teenage boy with green hair ran towards the stage and assumed position in a predetermined spot. He started waving to the cameras.

"After that, we have the wild boy with the soul of a gentleman. The bug researcher who can find even the smallest creatures and knows them as well as his own hands! The Ultimate Entomologist, Gonta... Gokuhara!"

This time, the person coming from the tunnel was a tall, heavily built and muscled boy with wild brown hair, who ran over to stand next to Rantaro.

"Also, there is someone who is an ally to parents everywhere... Someone who can truly be said to be a friend to all children... Someone with a heart as big as the earth... It's the Ultimate Child Caregiver, Maki... Harukawa!"

The next was a girl with black hair and red eyes.

"The fourth is someone who can be trusted to take on even the hardest jobs and complete them perfectly! Someone whose skills have already earned her some of the most vital positions in the country... It's the Ultimate Maid, Kirumi... Toujou!"

The next to run over was a gray haired girl in a maid uniform.

"Next, is someone whose skills can be said to be heavenly! An achiever with many talents, going from painting to sculpting. I am talking about the Ultimate Artist, Angie... Yonaga!"

This one was a dark skinned girl with platinum blonde hair.

"And then we have another great traveler... Someone whose knowledge is as broad and deep as the ocean... And someone who loves humanity like no one else can. The Ultimate Anthropologist, Korekiyo... Shinguuji!"

And a boy who wore a mask hiding the bottom half of his face.

"The next one is another person who has worldwide fame and acclaim for their feats. Someone who has dedicated their life and their skills to the noble task of finding missing people... It's the Ultimate Detective, Shuuichi... Saihara!"

Another boy came, this one wearing a cap and a black uniform.

"Next we have someone who is truly worthy of the title of genius! An eccentric mind whose work has already begun spreading into the daily lives of people... I am talking about the Ultimate Inventor, Miu... Iruma!"

And then came a blonde girl with straps binding her clothing.

"After that, we have someone whose very existence can already be considered an achievement. A person with a very different origin from most Ultimates... It is the Ultimate Robot, K1B0!"

The person who came was a very lifelike robot.

"And then there's someone who brings smiles to everyone with their skills... Someone who dazzles people with impossible feats... The Ultimate Magician, Himiko... Yumeno!"

This time it was a very short and childlike girl with red hair and a witch hat. If you looked closely, you could see she mouthing something that sounded like "actually a mage".

"Following, we have someone who mixes old and new... Someone who seeks the peak of one of the most ancient human pursuits... I am talking about the Ultimate Aikido Master, Tenko... Chabashira!"

This time, it was a girl with dark hair wearing an unusual four point, green hair decoration.

"And after that we have a leader... Someone whose activities have earned both admiration and irritation in equal measure... An existence dedicated to making fun of the world itself! This is the Ultimate Supreme Leader, Kokichi... Ouma!"

And the one who came next was a short boy wearing white clothes and a black and white chessboard scarf.

"Up next, the one I want to introduce is an enthusiast of the final frontier... Someone who can be said to represent the dreams of countless young people... It's the Ultimate Astronaut, Kaito... Momota!"

This one was a boy with purple hair.

"And the next one is a person who has both fame and infamy... A symbol of victory that lost his way, but may yet find it back... It is the Ultimate Tennis Pro, Ryoma... Hoshi!"

Said boy was very short and wore a hat that completely covered up his hair.

"The penultimate participant of this season is someone who is used to the spotlight... Someone who has a deep and unashamed love for their hobbies... Someone who understands the idea of 'clothes make the man'... The Ultimate Cosplayer, Tsumugi... Shirogane!"

And the next person to move and stand in line was a blue haired girl with glasses.

"And finally, our last participant for this season of Death Road of Despair and Hope... It is someone who has entertained even kings... Someone with skills that can be called miraculous... I am talking about the Ultimate Pianist, Kaede... Akamatsu!"

And the last person to run through and line up next to the other Ultimates was a blonde girl wearing music note style decorations on her hair and with a backpack.

"And now that we have our participants, it's time to introduce the first challenge of this season... A little thing that our creators have called: Road of the Box of Surprises!"

The space in front of the stage lit up, and the true form of the challenge was revealed. It was a narrow road suspended over a dark abyss where the lights of the show didn't get. The road was barely wide enough to be able to stand with both legs spread, and its length was around half a mile.

However, if that was the only challenge, it would be easy for those Ultimates, so there was something else as well. Suspended on both sides of the road, and above it were square boxes, which had openings pointed towards the road.

Monokuma explained the situation "Each of those boxes hold a variety of surprises that the Ultimates will have to deal with in order to get through this challenge. The specific boxes which will activate change each run, and the specific surprises they will shoot will also change. This is a challenge created in such a way that no particular talent of those gathered here will have an easy time."

Monokuma then turned and looked at the Ultimates "Our contestants will try their luck and skills in the same order as they were introduced... Which means Rantaro Amami will be the first to try and cross the Road of the Box of Surprises!"

A part of the stage directly in front of Monokuma lit up, and he motioned for Rantaro to go there. The Ultimate did so, and that part of the stage revealed itself to be a moving platform, which quickly floated over to the start of the Road.

"Now it's time to start... Rantaro Amami, get ready. Three, two, one, GO!" Monokuma shouted.

Rantaro started running.

-0-

"He has pretty good balance." Korekiyo said, seeing Rantaro running easily on such a narrow path.

"He has a lot of experience running away in all sorts of situations, so it's no wonder." Shuuichi said.

"Oh, you sound like you know from experience..." Korekiyo was interested.

"I traveled with him for two years to search for his missing sisters, so I do indeed have the experience."

"Hmm... And did you find his sisters?"

"Of course, otherwise we would still be traveling together, looking for them." Shuuichi assured.

Korekiyo nodded, satisfied by that answer. Then he focused back on Rantaro when the first "surprise" appeared.

-0-

One of the top boxes shot something on the bridge just ahead of Rantaro, and it only took a single glance to understand what it was: Liquid soap.

The first surprise of the Road was already that vicious!

But Rantaro didn't lose his focus. Instead of trying to stop himself and probably falling, he decided to jump forward. And with the strength of his legs, he managed to almost clear the patch of slippery floor.

He didn't quite jump far enough to avoid slipping, but that had never been his actual intention. Instead, he fell with his feet in a position similar to a skater, and managed to slide on the soap and get right back to running.

-0-

Kaito expressed his admiration "He reacted very quickly and decisively... I wonder what kind of training he went through."

"Training?" Ryoma, by his side, disagreed "I don't think he went through any training. This seems more like he has a lot of experience dealing with unexpected situation."

Kaito crossed his arms "Now that you say that... I suppose that would be fitting for the Ultimate Adventurer." His eyes shone with eagerness "I wonder how far he'll be able to go."

-0-

And it was at that point that another one of the surprises went off. To the right of Rantaro, the box shoot a barrage of pillows in his direction.

There were a lot of pillows, and they were flying fairly fast. Rantaro immediately realized that he wouldn't be able to dodge all of them, so instead he decided to ignore dodging completely. Instead, Rantaro crouched and held the edge of the Road with both hands.

With this, he managed to avoid most of the pillows, and his position was stable enough that the pillows that managed to hit him weren't enough to dislodge him from his position.

Standing up again, he returned to his run, but this time the next surprise appeared even faster than the previous ones. Falling from one of the top boxes, a wall landed in front of Rantaro, completely blocking his path through the Road.

To be more precise, it was actually a climbing wall, with places where it was possible to put your hands and feet. Also, the wall was actually shaped more like a cube, and it didn't have a path to climb to the top and go over it, instead having paths by the sides that would force Rantaro to climb perilously over the darkness.

Still, it was necessary, so Rantaro barely hesitated before grabbing at the handholds and stepping up with his feet. He wasn't exactly an expert in climbing, but he had some experience, and so he made his way smoothly through the left side of the wall.

However, that particular obstacle wasn't as simple as it first appeared to be.

One of the handholds near Rantaro fell off and dropped into the darkness.

-0-

"Well, that is certainly an interesting development." Korekiyo said.

"I knew this was going to be difficult, but..." Shuuichi commented, already worrying about his own attempt.

-0-

Meanwhile, Rantaro had kept moving. He knew that hurrying would only lead to him falling off, so he simply moved steadily and hoped that things would work out.

But it wasn't to be.

After only a few more seconds, one of the handholds that fell off was exactly a place were Rantaro was putting his weight on at the time. Specifically, it was one that was being held by his left hand.

With that falling off, Rantaro started to fall backwards, and he didn't manage to grab hold of another handhold before vanishing into the abyss.

"And Rantaro has FALLEN OFF!" Monokuma laughed "The Road of the Box of Surprises has taken its first victim!"

The bear then raised a hand and four different screens appeared around the stage, showing the scene of Rantaro falling off from various different angles.

After a few seconds of that, the screens changed to show some of the successful maneuvers Rantaro had done, the "highlights". And it was still showing those things when a platform raised up from the dark abyss, carrying Rantaro in it. And he was perfectly fine.

The Adventurer returned to his previous spot on the line as Monokuma introduced the next participant:

"Now, may our second contestant, Gonta Gokuhara start his on attempt at the Road?"

Gonta stepped forward, and he got to the start of the Road in the same way as Rantaro had done. Upon Monokuma's signal, the second challenge started.

Gonta immediately ran forward, just like Rantaro had done, but that was pretty much the only similarity between their two approaches. While Rantaro used his balance to avoid falling off, Gonta simply "bounded" forward and spent most of the time in the air.

This was also highlighted by his approach to the first challenge, as the Road of the Box of Surprises happened to reuse the climbing challenge which had led to Rantaro's defeat.

Instead of trying to climb, Gonta just jumped directly to the top, crossing the obstacle in an incredibly short time.

-0-

Kokichi noted that Tenko, who was beside him, was murmuring things that sounded like "perhaps a throw done at the right time... but I need to deal with his legs... using weapons might be the best choice..."

"What are you doing?" He asked, genuinely curious.

Tenko made a face upon seeing that a boy was talking to her, but this was a chance to talk about her interests, so... "Neo-Aikido is an art created to be able to counter anything. I was just thinking about how I could defeat Gonta if it came to that."

Kokichi turned to look at the boy in the Road, then he said "Good luck with that."

-0-

Gonta also didn't have any difficulty with the second challenge of the Box of Surprises. It was a missile carrying a net that flew over him and enveloped Gonta with the net, trying to drag him away from the road. But Gonta simply held on to the ground and the power of the missile simply wasn't enough to move him.

Removing the net after the missile stopped flying, Gonta returned to his path, only to finally find something that gave him trouble.

The next obstacle merely seemed like a smoke curtain hiding part of the stage at first, and Gonta was confident that he would be able to find his way through, but just after setting foot on the hidden part, he slipped on a bunch of small balls.

Desperately trying to maintain his balance, Gonta slid while shaking his arms, but that combined with his lack of orientation, caused him to fall to the side of the road.

But he extended a hand and grabbed onto the Road, unwilling to give up so easily.

-0-

The students could see Gonta hanging off the edge of the road.

"What was inside that to make Gonta fall so easily?" Tsumugi asked.

"A bunch of small marble balls." Kaede said.

"How do you know that?" Tsumugi was curious.

"I heard it." Kaede said simply "But I really want to know how they prevented the balls from falling off the edge as well."

Tsumugi nodded. That did indeed seem curious.

-0-

Gonta used his powerful strength to swing himself over, beyond the area of the smoke, and after taking a moment to recover, he went back to running.

But it was at that time that the Box showed how surprising it could really be.

The left box shot a deceptively small projectile, shaped like a dart. It flew quickly and lodged itself on the road beneath Gonta's feet.

And that whole section of the road just fell off.

It wasn't a large section, and Gonta even tried to jump off to reach it. But unless you were a character from a platformer game, it was impossible to jump off a falling platform, and Gonta fell into the darkness.

"And Gonta Gokuhara has FALLEN OFF!" Monokuma laughed, as the screens once more lit up to show the fall and the highlights.

-0-

The next person to challenge the Road of Surprises was Maki Harukawa, and she didn't break the streak of successive challengers running from the start. The way she did so was more similar to Rantaro's than Gonta's, but it was still unique, seeming somewhat military in manner.

Her speed was high, and she had already crossed a good portion of the road before the first obstacle activated.

Again, an obstacle that had been seen before reappeared, and this time it was the multiple pillow cannon. But Maki didn't deal with it in the same way Rantaro had.

Instead, as soon as she noticed the pillows flying towards her, Maki stopped for a moment before vanishing and reappearing several meters forward, completely avoiding the area of effect of the pillows.

-0-

"What was that...?" Kaito asked, surprised.

"That's the Shadowless Step." Ryoma said, with the air of an expert "It's a technique based around doing an extreme movement from one place to another in an instant. It's similar to my Shukuchi method, but instead of being purely focused on speed, it uses particular movements to make it hard for the eye to track."

Kaito nodded at the explanation "But how did Maki learn something like that?"

"I have no idea." Was Ryoma's answer.

-0-

Maki's second obstacle was also something that had been seen before, the same smoke cloud that had almost finished Gonta's attempt at the Road. But since she knew that the smoke held a secret, Maki actually slowed down before entering it.

And when she did enter, Maki was focused enough to control her slide through the small marbles, managing to get through the entire obstacle without trouble.

But the next thing that showed up was completely new.

The top box shot a small hoop onto the road Maki was walking, and then it suddenly started to tilt to the side. Maki accelerated, but the tilting was fast, and she was forced to grab hold of the edge of the platform to remain on top as it became completely horizontal.

It stopped, and Maki took the chance to climb on top of the edge, before resuming her run. But that had been the wrong thing to do.

A moment later, the entire thing fell to the abyss, dragging Maki with it, who was unable to reach the next section in time.

-0-

"How would you actually get through that?" Rantaro asked.

"Gonta thinks Maki should have pulled the hoop." The boy at his side said "It connected with the platform, so it should have some use."

Rantaro nodded "That's probably the case."

-0-

Again, the same process repeated itself. The screens lit up, the Ultimate was brought back to the line and the next Ultimate walked forward to take their turn to challenge the Road.

And it was another girl who did so. Kirumi Toujou, the Ultimate Maid.

As soon as Monokuma indicated the start, she started moving at an incredible speed.

-0-

"She's fast..." Kaito noted "Is this another one of those movement techniques?" He asked Ryoma, who seemed to understand that kind of thing.

"No. Actually, it's more like she is doing every single movement in the most perfect manner possible, thus moving in an extremely efficient way." Ryoma said "It reminds me of Tezuka's 'Perfection of Ten Thousand Strikes'. As expected of the Ultimate Maid who is good at everything."

-0-

The first obstacle was a small spherical robot that floated in the middle of the Road and blew high speed winds in all directions.

But such a thing wouldn't be a problem for Kirumi. Her movements slowed down noticeably, but she retained complete control and didn't stumble in any way as she passed through the danger area.

Accelerating again, Kirumi soon came across the next obstacle, which was once again something none of the other students had seen in their attempts. A floating robot was shot from one of the boxes and it started hovering beside the road.

Then it shot numerous strings at different angles and positions, creating something that seemed like a spiderweb and covered the path Kirumi had to go through.

Except that wasn't a problem for Kirumi either. With a single look, the girl identified all possible paths and determined which was the best one.

Then she started going through the complicated web of strings with a speed and efficiency which would bring a Parkour expert to shame, and without even ruffling her clothes. Kirumi flipped, spun, and dolphin leaped her way without stopping, and demonstrating amazing elegance.

-0-

"Is she actually a Combat Maid?" Tsumugi muttered.

"What?" Kaede asked.

"Ah, nothing. My hobbies just kind of slipped through." She said "Perhaps I should cosplay as some sort of Maid character soon..."

-0-

Finally, Kirumi had to face an obstacle that had appeared before, and it was exactly the same obstacle that had previously defeated Gonta.

When the dart came flying, Kirumi already knew what would happen, so she leaped into the air and managed to avoid the trap, clearing the part of the Road that had fallen off and managing to land on a safe spot.

But that turned out to be her limit, as the next challenge of the Box of Surprises proved to be the most vicious yet.

A mechanical sphere was shot at the road in front of Kirumi, and it unfolded into a floating robot that looked like a humanoid torso with four arms.

Seeing that it was another new thing, Kirumi slowed down again to try and deal with it. And the robot proved to be just as articulate as a real human, using its arms in some sort of martial arts combination.

Kirumi didn't panic at that. After all, she had received a request to "do her best" at the competition, she defended herself with precise movements, seeking a chance to slip through that guardian.

She finally found it, as all four arms of the enemy made a downward sweep, she jumped up and climbed over the floating robot with a fast speed.

However, the robot still had one final secret. An extra arm came out of a hidden compartment in its back, and it grabbed Kirumi, who was still in the air.

The Maid immediately twisted to try and free herself from the grip of the robot, but being in the air made it so that she was unable to exert strength properly, and even though she struggled as much as she could for the next few seconds, it wasn't enough, as the robot floated away from the road and dropped into the dark abyss, carrying Kirumi with it.

"And Kirumi Toujou has FALLEN OFF!" Came the familiar voice of Monokuma.

-0-

The next person to try their skills on the Road was Angie Yonaga, the Ultimate Artist. And she had something to say as she started on her way:

"Great Atua, show me the path!" She prayed, with her hands joined.

Then, she broke the streak of the other Ultimates and actually started walking instead of running.

That action made it fairly obvious something which the sharper eyed Ultimates had already suspected: The release of the "surprises" was not based on the time that transpired, but instead on the distance traveled. Of course, it wasn't something exact by any means, since being surprising was the point, but it did mean that the slowest Ultimates would have to deal with just as many obstacles as the fastest ones, if they wanted to win.

Regardless, Angie finally reached the first obstacle, and it was the same barrage of pillows that Rantaro had faced before, only she decided to deal with it in a very different manner.

She simply kept walking, and she passed through the area of effect of the pillows. She first slowed down, then she sped up, and like she knew exactly where the pillows would be, Angie managed to avoid every single one of them by a hair's breath.

-0-

"Is she psychic?" Kaito asked himself, then turned to Ryoma "Ryoma, do you understand what she just did?"

Ryoma was thinking hard "The only thing I can think about is the Artist's Eye..."

"And what is that?"

"I once played against a painter who played tennis not to win, but to 'paint pictures on the court' using the strokes." Ryoma began to explain "He had a very good ability to predict the results of his strikes and mine, and I think she may have used some kind of similar process to predict a good path." He stopped for a second "But I'm not really sure. Art is not really my specialty, and I don't understand those types of methods."

"Huh..." Kaito nodded, thoughtfully.

-0-

Angie kept going, and her second obstacle was the same wind robot that Kirumi had faced before.

She slowed down and walked carefully, fighting against the wind. It definitely was not as smooth and elegant as the way Kirumi had done it, but she surpassed the obstacle all the same. Then she had to deal with the liquid soap, which was much easier, since she had enough balance to just slide through.

After that came the same fighting robot which had defeated Kirumi, and Angie, not having the same hand to hand skill the Maid had, was immediately forced into a bad position.

She fought with all she had, and even managed to block the surprise arm after passing through the enemy, but the robot proceeded to spin and grab at her again with all four hands, which ended up being too much after she had gotten tired.

That same robot had claimed to victims in a row.

-0-

As Monokuma did his customary reaction, Tsumugi frowned "I wonder what is the way to deal with that thing... According to the rules, any obstacle can be completed even without Ultimate Abilities, so..."

Kaede was also thoughtful "Maybe it has a limited fuel supply or something and you just have to wait?"

"That's a good idea." Tsumugi said "Maybe I'll try it myself if I don't see any other options... Though it would be better if I didn't have to deal with it at all..."

-0-

The next Ultimate to step up was Korekiyo Shinguuji, the Ultimate Anthropologist. And he would soon prove that even Angie's strange prediction abilities were only scratching the surface of how weird things could get once Ultimates went all out with their abilities.

And this was already highlighted on the first obstacle, which proved to be the same wind machine that had already appeared twice in a row. Korekiyo got close to it in a similar way as Angie had, but that was the only thing in common between their approaches.

He took out a rope from... somewhere, and threw it at the robot, lassoing it like it was a bull. And after that it was easy for him to get through the area of effect of that thing.

He was also running, so it didn't take long for him to find the second obstacle, which was the same climbing wall that both Rantaro and Gonta had faced. Again he used his rope, managing to snag it into the handholds and swing himself through the area much faster than a traditional climbing could do.

-0-

"Wow... He is pretty good at using that rope" Miu said, with her eyes open wide "I wonder what other kinds of things he could do with it..." She finished, a little bit of drool coming out of the corner of her mouth.

"Yes, it indeed seems to be a very useful ability." Keebo said innocently "You could easily wrap up packages and get things which were far without needing to move!"

"Oh yes... Of course... That too..." Miu said, snapping out of her delusions.

"One of my modular functions has effects similar to that." Keebo boasted.

"Really...?" Miu said, getting ideas.

-0-

Korekiyo kept going, and finally saw a new obstacle. And it was a very strange one.

One of the boxes shot the Road with some kind of beam, and a large portion of it simply disappeared. Korekiyo stopped at the edge of that part of the Road and was surprised when he saw a huge sphere float up and stop just next to him. That was obviously the way to go.

Taking a deep breath, Korekiyo climbed up atop the sphere and started walking on it, making the sphere roll and slowly move towards the next part of the bridge.

It was a very strange sight, since Korekiyo needed to walk backwards in order to make the sphere move forward. It was a very awkward way to move, but Korekiyo managed it with some difficulty, and soon reached the end and jumped out from the sphere.

He kept going, but the bizarreness didn't stop with just one obstacle. The next one was some kind of ribbon that crossed over the Road without seeming to do anything at first, but when Korekiyo ran a few more steps, the Road started _shaking_.

Korekiyo was immediately forced to stop running and walk, and even then it was difficult, with each step being a struggle. The shaking was really too much, and the Anthropologist suffered the risk of being flung off the narrow Road.

Still, he persevered, going step by step. But that particular obstacle still had one more secret up its proverbial sleeves.

The road started moving from side to side, before breaking into two sections that moved in synchrony but mirroring each other instead of moving in the same pattern.

They weren't moving that fast, but it was still fast enough that there was only a brief period of time in which Korekiyo could possibly move from one section to the other. It would be a difficult maneuver.

He waited and timed things, and then jumped.

He landed on the other section successfully, but not perfectly. The movement of the Road had hindered his jump, and he landed on the edge of the other part. And that was just not good enough.

The movement of the platform flung him out of the Road, and Korekiyo was the next to fall into the darkness.

-0-

After that, the contestant who took the stage was Shuuichi Saihara, and like Angie before him, he walked instead of running.

The first obstacle he had to face was not a new one, but the same tilting ground obstacle that had defeated Maki previously. However, the same thing would not happen with Shuuichi, as he managed to prove Gonta's prior speculations right.

As soon as the handle was shot, Shuuichi crouched on the ground, and when the tilting started, he was already reaching for it. Pulling on the handle, he made the tilting stop immediately, and then the road quickly returned to normal, allowing Shuuichi to keep going.

The next obstacle was the missile net that Gonta had dealt with. And as soon as he saw it, Shuuichi knew that he could not use the same tactics as Gonta. Instead he stopped and waited, allowing the missile to come closer and closer... And then he suddenly lay flat on the ground, allowing the net of the missile to pass just over him, since he knew it would not be able to adjust height so fast.

-0-

Rantaro nodded "Shuuichi has always been rather good at that, so it's nice to see he hasn't lost his skill since then."

"What do you mean?" Gonta asked.

"Shuuichi traveled with me for two years to help find my sisters." Rantaro said "Only we kept getting into trouble, so Shuuichi had to get really good at ducking quickly." He nodded "I'm just happy he kept up this habit even after we parted."

"Gonta understands."

-0-

Shuuichi then met with the falling bridge obstacle that had defeated Gonta but was surpassed by Maki, only his response to it was much different from anything before. Instead of advancing quickly, he actually moved back hurriedly, and he managed to get away from the area in which the path fell.

Then, after a few seconds, the path was put back in place, which was something Shuuichi had noticed during Maki's attempt, and thus he was able to simply walk through without any fear. But after that came another new obstacle.

It was a rolling ball made of what appeared to be fabric, and it was rolling directly at Shuuichi. He stopped in place and seemed to consider his options for a bit, before taking a running start and doing a dive-jump over the ball, which was only at chest height for him.

This resulted in Shuuichi almost falling off, but he managed to grab a hold of the edge of the platform and pull himself back up.

He returned to his walk, and the next obstacle he met was the liquid soap. Shuuichi stepped into it and slid, but things didn't go as planned.

Shuuichi's impulse wasn't properly centered, so his angle of moving was pointing towards the edge of the Road. Seeing this, he tried to use his other foot to adjust, but ended up slipping and falling, proceeding to roll down the edge and into the darkness.

-0-

"Is he okay?" Kaede asked, concerned over Shuuichi's fall.

"Of course!" Tsumugi assured her "The whole bridge has special technology to absorb impacts from any direction, and there are a lot of other security measures too."

"That's nice."

-0-

Miu Iruma was the next Ultimate to participate, and she started with a bang. Pressing a button on her sleeve, she made a rocket backpack appear on her back.

"This is the power of SCIENCE!" She bragged, as she started flying over the course.

Then, the first obstacle that welcomed her was the good old missile net. And her flight wasn't fast enough to outrun it.

"No, no, no, no, no, no!" She repeated, as the net grabbed her and the missile dragged her towards the abyss.

-0-

"Wow. What bad luck." Kaede commented.

"Of all the things that could have come first..." Tsumugi said.

-0-

Keebo was the next contestant, and he was another Ultimate who decided to say something before starting:

"It is time for me to show the wonder of the technologies of Professor Idabashi!" He declared, and then started bouncing.

-0-

"Wow. That is some pretty nice technology if he can control his bounces that well." Miu said.

-0-

And it really seemed like Keebo could control his bounces perfectly, as he moved in a perfect straight line while alternating between long and short bounces.

It was a very fast way to advance, so he quickly got to and got through the first two obstacles, which were unable to make him even slow down.

The first was the climbing wall, and the second was the same rolling ball of fabric that Shuuichi had faced earlier. Both of them were avoided by the simple expedient of jumping over them.

The third however, was a completely new obstacle, and it wouldn't be as easy to surpass.

One of the boxes released dozens of small flying cubes, and then they started to burst open, releasing some kind of slippery liquid that was very definitely not the same thing as the liquid soap from the other obstacle and managed to cover that entire part of the road, along with Keebo himself.

And as soon as Keebo landed on the Road again, that liquid showed just how slippery it really was. Keebo immediately lost his balance, and his subsequent bounce threw him a long distance away from the Road.

However, he would not give up so easily. Keebo proceeded to launch one of his hands like a combination of a rocket punch and grappling hook, and it managed to reach the road.

But his struggle was in vain. The extremely slippery liquid was still there, and his grappling hand could not get a grip on the road, leaving Keebo to fall into the abyss.

-0-

After that, it was the turn of the Ultimate Magician, Himiko Yumeno.

Himiko also said something at the start of her attempt. In her case it was:

"Let me show you, the wonder that is my EXTREME FLIGHT MAGIC!"

And she floated upwards into the air, before slowly moving forward.

-0-

"How is she doing that?" Rantaro asked.

"Ah, there are strings connected to the ceiling!" Gonta realized.

"You must have some really good eyesight if you can see then, because I can't."

"Gonta does." He confirmed.

"I guess that means she must have prepared things during the other attempts..." Rantaro theorized.

-0-

Meanwhile, in a different part of the Ultimate line.

"Himiko is so wonderful!" Tenko squeed.

"I am so incredibly jealous right now!" Kokichi declared, clenching his fists as he looked at Himiko.

-0-

Similar to Keebo, Himiko had no trouble with the first two obstacles, due to being able to fly over them. The first of those obstacles being the tilting floor and the second being the climbing wall again. The third obstacle was a little different, however.

It was the net missile that had appeared previously and even defeated Miu. So of course, Himiko could not avoid it just by flying over. She had a different strategy in mind.

The Ultimate Magician stopped in the air and waited until the missile came close, before pointing her right hand at it and yelling "Telekinesis Magic!"

And the net moved upwards, thus avoiding Himiko when the missile passed above her.

-0-

"That's some really precise string manipulation." Tsumugi said.

"String manipulation?" Kaede asked.

"Yeah, that's what she just did." Tsumugi nodded "You use precise hand movements to manipulate strings. I can do the same with threads, but I mostly use it to weave clothes quickly."

"That's..." Kaede thought of a way to respond "That's a pretty mundane use of such an awesome ability, but I like it."

-0-

Having finished with that obstacle, Himiko kept moving forward.

But then, the next obstacle ended up defeating her, even though it was one that had failed to block other Ultimates more than once.

It was the pillow barrage. A huge amount of pillows were fired at Himiko's position, even though she was in the air.

While she could dodge the pillows by manipulating the strings lifting her up, and she did in fact do so, the barrage of pillows was too fast and intense to allow her to maneuver her strings out of the way of it as she had done for the missile.

This resulted in her strings being cut through and Himiko plummeting down in a spin that took her right into the abyss.

-0-

Tenko was sad to see Himiko fall, but she quickly got her head back into gear when it came her turn to challenge the Road of the Box of Surprises.

She ran, showing that her martial skills included both speed and balance, and she quickly reached her first obstacle.

It was that feared penta-armed floating fighting robot, which was definitely not an easy way to start, but different from the two Ultimates who had fallen to it, Tenko was a martial artist, and so she took a different tack to facing that challenge.

Tenko parried a few hits from the robot while she got closer and closer, but then she reached up with a kick straight to the bottom of the machine, damaging its propulsion system.

As the robot tried desperately to right itself, Tenko used a throw to make it go over the edge. Then she went back to running.

-0-

"Ah, truly a masterful use of the 'kick-in-the-nuts' technique" Rantaro snarked.

"Gonta afraid now." He crossed his legs.

-0-

The second obstacle Tenko faced was the tilting ground, where she easily replicated Shuuichi's technique to get through safely. And after that came the climbing wall.

Tenko elected to actually do that obstacle properly, different from the Ultimates that had bypassed it. But she showed an amazing amount of agility, breezing through the section with the ease of a monkey.

After that came the same smoke cloud/marbles combination that had caused Gonta a lot of trouble, and it turned out that Tenko didn't find it any easier.

She managed to keep her balance instead of falling, but the effort of doing so ended up causing her to lose track of her position, which resulted in Tenko sliding right off the edge.

-0-

After Tenko's return, Kokichi Ouma was the next Ultimate to stand at the beginning of the Road.

He also mugged for the camera while en route to it, showing the most confidence out of all the contestants thus far.

This was reflected by the fact that he actually walked through the road, even though he was more than capable of running, as would become clear very soon.

The first obstacle Kokichi reached was the dart begetting the falling platform. Shuuichi had previously demonstrated how it could be dealt with by moving backwards, but Kokichi instead burst into a run, then jumped just before the platform started to fall, managing to clear the danger zone.

-0-

"That's some really good running technique." Ryoma noted "I bet he's had plenty of practice."

"Considering the pranks he's played, I imagine it was necessary." Kaito said.

-0-

The next challenge was the fighting robot again, and Kokichi demonstrated another way of dealing with it: He ran right at the robot and did a slide at the last moment, managing to get past the thing without having to deal with the fifth arm due to his low position.

Proceeding forward, Kokichi was faced with the same obstacle that had defeated Keebo: The spheres which exploded into slippery liquid.

Kokichi sped up just a bit from his walking, and then proceeded to repeat his previous strategy: Sliding.

He started sliding just as the liquid fell, and his control over it was good enough that Kokichi managed to get across the entire distance without issue.

However, in a spectacular bit of bad luck, his very next obstacle was the climbing wall, and even though Kokichi tried to wipe the remains of the liquid from his hands and feet, enough remained that he ended up losing his grip while in the middle of the wall, falling into the darkness.

-0-

Kokichi didn't really seem to get down due to his defeat, which Kaito noted before moving forward for his own attempt.

Compared to most of the participants, Kaito was refreshingly normal. The best comparison would be with Rantaro, in which he demonstrated a high level of skill and ability to adapt, but nothing that a well-trained person wouldn't be able to reach. There was nothing of special techniques, or super fast movements, or predictions that other Ultimates had relied on. However, that did not mean that his attempt was any less exciting.

Kaito managed to face the climbing wall properly as his first obstacle, and he escaped from being caught by the missile net by way of a quick dive and roll. Following that, he made his way through the smoke cloud + marbles with an amazing steadiness, and after that, came the shaking floor.

It had defeated Korekiyo previously, and Kaito's experience showed that it had not been a fluke. The Astronaut walked with heavy steps, and using his hands to maintain balance. The speed of his advance could very well be called a "crawl", and after getting to the jump part, Kaito stopped and waited for a bit before trying.

He jumped, and managed to land right in the middle of the moving platform, but despite trying to keep himself there, he ended up slipping off, and even his heroic attempt at grabbing on the edge ended up failing, and he also fell into the abyss.

-0-

"I think I get the trick for that one..." Ryoma said, preparing for his own attempt.

-0-

The first obstacle he had to face on his own challenge was the pillow barrage, and he dealt with it in nearly the same way in which Maki had done, except with the Shukuchi method instead of the Shadowless Step.

And after that, he had the "luck" of being able to test his hypothesis, as the second obstacle was the dangerous shaking floor and leap. Ryoma's initial strategy to get past it was the same as Kaito, continuing up until the point where he prepared to jump.

But instead of trying to jump to the center of the moving platform, Ryoma aimed for the edge, specifically, the edge that would be going upwards at the time.

Grabbing the edge with both hands, Ryoma pretty much glued himself to the moving platform, managing to hang on until it started moving back, upon which he stood up and ran until he managed to get out of the area of effect of the obstacle.

Ryoma kept moving forward, and easily avoided the third obstacle, which was the barrage of pillows, but after that came the very dangerous slippery liquid obstacle.

Ryoma tried to follow in Kokichi's footsteps, and just slide to victory, but that was very definitely harder than it seemed, and he was simply unable to correct his route after it went wrong, ending up falling over the edge.

-0-

"That slide movement seems to be really difficult." Kaito noted, then looked at Kokichi "How did you do it so easily?"

The small boy put his hands behind his back and pretended to think deeply, before answering:

"Talent."

Kaito was not amused.

-0-

And then it was time for Tsumugi Shirogane to start her own attempt, and she was another one of those that walked on the Road instead of running.

And the first obstacle she faced was the missile net, which proved an early opportunity for her to show her "particular" skills.

She pointed her hands forward and _wove_.

The result of her weaving was akin to a clothesline, complete with clothes. It looked more than just a little ridiculous, but it was undeniably effective, as the line basically flew at the missile and blocked off its output, making the flying obstacle fall straight into the abyss together with its net.

-0-

"I didn't realize someone else in this group could cast magic." Himiko said, in a slightly higher tone that was her being impressed.

"So, she's using magic, then?" Tenko said, surprised at the fact that Himiko was actually speaking.

"Of course." The self-proclaimed mage nodded "I'm the Ultimate Mage, but there are other mages all around the world, and Tsumugi is one of them."

-0-

Tsumugi also used her skill in another weird manner to get past the second obstacle, which was the climbing wall.

She created a double clothesline that sneaked around the handholds and allowed her to walk on a line while holding onto another. And there were so many handholds supporting the lines that even if a few of them fell off, it still didn't affect the overall balance.

-0-

"Where does she even keep that much thread?" Shuuichi asked, exasperated.

"I imagine she does it in a similar way to how I keep my ropes." Korekiyo said.

"And how is that?" Shuuichi asked, eyebrow raised.

Korekiyo only smiled (it was covered by the mask, but Shuuichi could tell) and said nothing.

-0-

And after that came the liquid soap, which Tsumugi still refused to face in a standard manner, instead weaving a large sweater which she used as a board. And after that came the fighting robot.

Tsumugi once again used her weaving, trying to create a barrier of clothes to slow down the robot. However, it didn't go as planned.

The robot managed to grip onto the clothes and pull on them very fast, before Tsumugi had a chance to let go, pulling Tsumugi close enough to be grabbed by the arms, whereupon the robot subsequently dragged her into defeat.

-0-

There was only one student who hadn't had a chance to try the Road yet, and Monokuma explained a few things before that student (Kaede Akamatsu) went to do her attempt.

"Now, we are going to have the final attempt of the first round of this stage of the game!" He declared "That means that, if Kaede fails to reach the end as well, we are going to restart from the beginning, and if no winner has been found after three rounds, the winner will be the contestant who reached furthest." He stopped for a moment "And now, without further ado... Let's get this started!"

-0-

Obviously, for the last contestant of the first round, expectations were high. It would be hilariously anticlimactic if she ended up falling at the first obstacle.

But that didn't happen.

Kaede walked until reaching her first challenge, which was the falling floor, and she overcame it by using the same technique Shuuichi had demonstrated before. Simply moving backwards and waiting for the trap to pass.

And she also lucked out for her second obstacle, as it was the tilting platform which also had an easy way to be dealt with. But after that she showed something very interesting. While she was walking calmly down the path, Kaede suddenly broke into a run, and when the third obstacle appeared (the liquid soap), she had already managed to pass through its area of effect.

-0-

"How did she do that?" Kaito asked, looking at Ryoma "Did she just predict it?"

The Tennis Pro shook his head "I don't know. It seems like she knew what would happen, but I have no idea how she could have done it."

"I think..." Tsumugi, who was next to them, decided to pipe up "I think she's hearing it."

"What do you mean?" Kaito asked.

"She was able to determine what was inside the smoke cloud just because of the sounds." Tsumugi explained "Maybe she has memorized the sounds that each particular obstacle makes while it is being prepared inside the box." She put a hand on her chin "That would mean that being the last one was an advantage for her."

"With this, she would also know which boxes would release the traps. It is indeed something very useful for this challenge." Ryoma said.

-0-

After that came the climbing wall, and while Kaede's agility wasn't good enough to easily overcome it, she could hear the movement of the mechanisms inside to predict which handholds would fall. And that, combined with a good amount of effort, allowed her to overcome that obstacle.

Kaede recovered for a bit before going back to walking, and then an extremely familiar obstacle reappeared. It was the same fighting robot that had just defeated Tsumugi.

Kaede had seen Tenko get past the robot, but she wasn't capable of using the same strategy as her, so the pianist was forced to test her own assumptions about how the machine worked.

She slowly got close, and the robot tried to reach for her. Kaede then retreated, and the robot didn't chase after.

Seeing that a possibility existed, Kaede started moving in and out of the "aggro area" of the enemy, and the robot was simply unable to touch her, until eventually, it ran out of energy and fell to the ground.

-0-

"Hmm... So she was right about that..." Tsumugi muttered.

-0-

Not trusting it, Kaede cautiously made her way closer and pushed the thing out of the Road.

Nodding, she went back to moving forward, only to be faced with yet another dangerous obstacle: The shaking Road.

And from the beginning, Kaede tried a different tactic from the other Ultimates who had faced it. Instead of braving the shaking with balance and strong legs, she crouched and held onto the edge of the Road, slowly crawling forward.

Even after the Road started moving left and right, Kaede's tactic still allowed her to maintain her balance until she got to the jump portion.

She hesitated for three whole seconds there, trying to prepare herself mentally, and then she jumped.

Following Ryoma's lead perfectly, Kaede managed to grab on to the edge of the next part of the Road, and instead of standing up and running off, she actually repeated her earlier strategy and slowly crawled along towards safety.

And after Kaede finally stood up and started walking again, the other fifteen students were watching with baited breath. The Ultimate Pianist had already overcame six obstacles, and from what was left of the Road, it seemed likely that there would be just one more challenge before the end.

That was indeed the case, and an unnatural silence spread over the stage when the large number of cubes appeared and released their slippery payload.

In response, Kaede threw herself on the ground, sideways.

She started sliding, and was slowly slipping towards the right edge (where her head was). But there was a reason why she had chosen such a method of sliding. Kaede actually managed to stretch out her legs over the other edge and hook them over to adjust her movement.

If it were any other situation, someone would have probably made a comment about the cleverness of that tactic, but considering how close Kaede was to the end of the Road, no one could speak.

And she slid, and slid, and she finally hit the raised step representing the end of the Road.

Then Kaede pulled herself up that step with her hands and threw her body at the finishing line.

Immediately, lots of fireworks started to explode all around the set.

"Amazing!" Monokuma shouted "Kaede Akamatsu, the Ultimate Pianist, has managed to reach the ending of the Road of the Box of Surprises, becoming the winner of the first challenge!"

A very nice musical number started to play, as the other Ultimates cheered and Kaede waved at them, smiling.

"I guess that means we are going to end this broadcast here for now." He declared "But this is only the beginning of the season! The next challenge will take a while, but during that time, you will be able to watch a lot more content involving our Ultimates!" Monokuma then pointed at a camera "How will they react to the labs we've prepared? Who will be the first eight pairs who will talk inside the Isolated Chambers? All that and much more, you will get to see soon! So until then, STAAAAAAY WATCHING!"


	2. Research Labs and Isolation Chambers

The sixteen Ultimates were sitting at a table inside a white room. And in a raised throne next to the table, Monokuma was sitting and watching them.

"I presume you guys are excited to get a look at the actual academy, along with your Ultimate Research Labs." The bear said.

"Stupid, of course we are!" Miu berated him "And my Lab better be amazing, otherwise you'll become the enemy of humanity for nor allowing me to work at my best!"

"You don't need to worry about it, Miu." Tsumugi waved her concerns off, and ignored her aggression "I have watched every season of this show, and there was never a single Ultimate who wasn't satisfied with the lab that was prepared for them."

"Wait, you saw every season? For reals, every season?" Kaede asked in disbelief. That series was extremely popular, but also a long runner, so it was rare to find someone who had watched every season, specially if it was a young person.

"Of course!" Tsumugi nodded "I even played the games that-"

Monokuma interrupted "Okay, okay, Ultimate Fangirl, we don't need a huge lecture at the moment." He sighed "Even after so many years, I can never get a handle on you Ultimates... I'm just trying to give the initial explanations here and you guys are already going off in wild tangents...

"Whatever!" He exclaimed "I can't let those kinds of things get me down, I'm going to do this properly!"

The students were speechless at Monokuma's outburst. Then, he smiled.

"Puhuhu, that always works."

Then, he pointed at the students and spoke again "There's really not much to explain. You just need to leave through that door" He pointed at a door behind him "and my copies will explain to you about the main areas of the Academy as well as take you to your labs. You will have to explore on your own to find out about everything in this place."

As soon as he finished saying that, Monokuma disappeared and the door behind him opened. The Ultimates understood that they should leave, and they did so.

Outside of that small room, they had their first glimpse of the complete campus where they would be spending their days for a while.

The first impression they had could be summed up in a single word:

Big.

It was absolutely enormous, with a vast area that contained dozens of buildings. It even had roads, gardens and parking lots, which really gave the impression of a college campus.

Soon, sixteen copies of Monokuma appeared and approached the Ultimates, and they started explaining the basics about the place, including where were the dormitories and cafeteria, as well as some of the useful areas like the cassino.

After that, each of the Monokumas took one of the Ultimates and they spread, leading their respective Ultimates to their own Ultimate Research Labs.

-0-

Kaede was brought to one of the top floors of the "classroom building". The Monokuma took her to a door that was decorated with musical notes and opened it, allowing Kaede to go in.

The sound that came out of her throat at the moment she saw her Research Lab was definitely a squee, though it was a little different from a normal one...

"Are even your squees in tune?" Monokuma asked with a note of disbelif in his voice (it was for the audience).

Kaede didn't really hear what he said, since she was too focused on the vision of beauty before her.

Perhaps the most impressive was the Grand Piano, and yes, it deserved the capital letters. It would even deserve being in ALL CAPS, except it was too classy for that kind of thing. It was the kind of piano Kaede played in the most hallowed of the halls of music, the kind of places only the best of each generation could stand at.

Kaede raised the cover of the keys and played a few notes, and she noticed that the tuning was just right. She then played a small segment of "Septette for a Dead Princess", just to enjoy it.

After that, she looked at the rest of the room. There were a bunch of other piano instruments, including an electronic keyboard, but the next thing she noticed were the shelves full of music CDs and other kinds of media. Getting nearby, she started reading the labels, getting more and more excited with each new one.

Monokuma looked at the camera and said "Looks like our Ultimate Pianist is enjoying her Lab."

-0-

"I still have no idea what you could possibly do for my Lab." Maki said, as the Monokuma led her through the open area "I mean... What kind of Lab would the Ultimate Child Caregiver have, anyway?"

"You don't need to worry, because we'll be there soon, and you'll see for yourself." Monokuma said "In fact... You'll be able to see it after one more right turn."

Maki frowned but said nothing, as was her usual practice. The two were walking right next to the left wall of the school building, and the next right turn would take them to the backside of it. The girl walked in silence, and waited to see what they wanted to show her.

And when the right turn was finally made, Maki froze on the spot.

"Hello, Miss Maki!" Dozens of childlike voices called in unison.

And they belonged to children, and all of those children looked very familiar to Maki. And behind them was a building that also looked very familiar...

"Did you..." She started saying "Did you guys seriously just transplant the whole orphanage to this place, along with the children?"

"You should never underestimate the power of the producers!" Monokuma bragged.

At that point, the children started running towards Maki, and Monokuma decided that it was time to leave.

"I'll leave you to do your thing." He said, and vanished. Leaving Maki to endure the attentions of the children on her own.

-0-

Shuuichi's own Laboratory already impressed him even before he got inside.

It was a small, one floor building that was disconnected from any other buildings. And it was very stylish, with an old school facade made of bricks and a few steps to get into the front door. And there was a sign on top of the door which read "Shuuichi Detective Office".

And of course, Shuuichi didn't need any encouragement from Monokuma to actually go inside.

And the interior of the building did not disappoint the promise of the exterior. It was a well-lit office, with a carpeted floor, a few chairs for the clients to sit, and a table for the detective himself to sit at and work. And behind that table, there were four shelves.

Shuuichi approached them, and saw that they were police reports and similar documents for all sorts of disappearance cases, all flawlessly organized based on area and causes. Along with those there were also maps and other documents that would help deal with cases of disappearance.

Monokuma then approached the work table and booted up the computer that was atop it, before explaining:

"Using this computer, you will be able to receive requests from all over the world, as well as consult information to be able to deal with those requests even though you won't be able to go outside for a while."

"Hmm... I wonder what kinds of requests I'll get..." Shuuichi said, sitting at the table.

-0-

Tenko was another one who was already excited for her Research Lab before even entering it, because it was a building in old Chinese style, looking like a martial arts dojo.

"I would introduce your lab to you..." Monokuma said "But I think you would prefer to see it for yourself, so go ahead!"

Tenko smiled broadly and ran towards her Lab at amazing speeds. She then stopped right in front of the door and braced herself before pushing it, because she had realized that it was an incredibly heavy door, to the point that simply opening it already qualified as training.

But open it Tenko did, and she entered to see the inside of her Lab. And it was just as amazing as she expected.

The building descended deeply underground, with several layers of training arenas, each with their own specifics. Some were covered in concrete to mimic street fighting, while others had a rocky, hilly terrain, with steep ups and down, representing mountains.

And not only were there a variety of terrains, but around those arenas, also divided into several levels, there were all sorts of objects, machines and weapons, which combined with the arenas, would allow Tenko to train for pretty much any kind of fighting situation. Not to mention the bars, poles and other training apparatus that would help keep her in shape.

"This is amazing!" She shouted, her excitability levels going through the roof as she thought about what her first training should be.

-0-

Kokichi got confused when Monokuma brought him to an empty valley, hidden from view. However, things became clear when he produced a small remote control and pressed a button on it, which caused the secret of the valley to be revealed.

One piece of ground that seemed no different from the others opened up like a door, revealing a set of stairs that descended into the underground. Monokuma then tossed the remote to Kokichi and said:

"Here. Try not to lose it, since they're annoying to replace."

Kokichi looked at the remote and said "It doesn't seem like this is only to open and close the door, right?"

"Right." Monokuma nodded "This thing controls everything in your lab. It's complicated enough to need an instruction manual... But I forgot to bring it, so you'll have to figure things out on your own. Bye!" He vanished.

Kokichi smiled and walked down the stairs to see what exactly his Lab entailed.

Remote controlled drones, all sorts of disguises and prank items, a central computer which he could use to communicate with the rest of DICE and coordinate their actions from a distance, and that was just what he saw at first.

Kokichi started to try the buttons of the remote, eager to see more.

-0-

In comparison with the Labs of Tenko and Kokichi, Himiko's Lab was much less attention grabbing, being actually contained in a single room in the classroom building, just like Kaede's.

However, while getting there, Himiko had noticed a few important things, like how there were no other rooms nearby, and how the same space in the floor directly below also didn't seem to have any rooms to its name. As such, she knew from the very beginning that, just like magic itself, that room contained several mysteries of its own.

"What do you think?" Monokuma asked.

Himiko looked at it. And her first impression was already positive, since the room contained an amazing amount of supplies for magic shows. Animal cages, swords, water tanks and a few other small things.

This was already good, but she immediately walked through those things to press on a part of the wall that seemed no different from the others, but which her mage instincts told her had to be what she wanted.

Her finger went through with only a little bit of resistance, and she managed to find a button inside to press. Nothing seemed to happen, but Himiko moved to the corner of the room and pulled on one of the boards, which somehow made a part of the wall lift up, revealing another room.

"Looks like Himiko found one of the secrets of her Lab!" Monokuma announced to the viewers "What do you have to say, Himiko?" He asked the girl.

She looked at him, her face in still the same bored expression "My Lab is cool."

-0-

Rantaro Amami's Lab as in the basement of the classroom building. The Ultimate Adventurer himself walked confidently down the stairs that led to it, curious about what he would find.

And the answer was... Books, and photos, and all sorts of small objects, the kind that people would take as souvenirs during travels, only those were significantly more valuable than what most people would get, and the variety was such that you could find things from all over the world.

"So this is the Ultimate Adventurer's Lab, huh?" Rantaro said.

"Indeed." Monokuma said "It was difficult to think of a Lab for you, since your whole thing is going around the world. So the producers eventually decided to make a place to help you train for when you are actually going to travel again."

Rantaro nodded. He saw language books, photos of interesting places where he had never been, and there was even a paper file atop of the table. He looked at it, and actually got stunned.

"Is this..." He tried to talk "Is this permission to learn how to fly helicopters?"

"Yes. And that's just one of the types of vehicles you'll be able to learn to pilot while you're here." Monokuma grinned.

Rantaro's response to that was a grin of his own.

-0-

Tsumugi's Research Lab looked like a movie set when seen from the outside. And it turned out that it really was a movie set on the inside, more or less. Cameras, movable sets, machines for construction of costumes, along with big stocks of all sorts of materials, including some that were pretty expensive.

"It's just as great as I expected it to be!" Tsumugi didn't hide her enthusiasm "And since I'm finally part of the show, I have to commemorate it somehow, and I know exactly what to do."

"And what are you planning to do?" Monokuma asked, curious.

"I'm going to Cosplay as Reika Yoshino, the Ultimate Tailor! My favorite character from Death Road of Despair and Hope: The Animated Series!" She exclaimed, then ran towards the costuming area to start.

"Wait, what?" Monokuma asked, then accessed the databank to try and find the answer.

"You mean... that cartoon based on the reality show that was canceled after five episodes twenty years ago?" Monokuma said, disbelievingly "You actually watched it?"

"Of course. It's part of the franchise, after all." Tsumugi said, like it was obvious.

"You really are the Ultimate Fangirl..."

-0-

Half a mile away from the school building stood a tower, and at the top of that tower was Kaito's Ultimate Research Lab.

"Are you still okay?" Monokuma asked "Those were a lot of stairs after all."

"Don't worry." Kaito only seemed slightly tired "My regular training is much more straining than this... Although, I hope you fix the elevator soon. It will be difficult to show my Lab to the others like this."

"Oh, the thing about the elevator being broken was a lie. I just wanted to see how you would deal with the climb." Monokuma said.

"Why you...!" Kaito started.

"And we're here!" Monokuma announced, making Kaito forget about his anger.

The high-tech door to the Lab opened automatically, and led to a place that was a combination of homey and high-tech. And Kaito's eyes were attracted to a door to a side-room that looked like the pressure doors of a plane. He walked towards it and touched it.

"Is this... A low gravity chamber...?" Kaito asked.

"Indeed it is!" Monokuma laughed "As the Ultimate Astronaut, you need to have adequate training, and that is only one of the things we got with that idea in mind."

Kaito could not stop himself from smiling, as he went to check the rest of the Lab.

It looked like they took that whole "training" thing pretty seriously. There were not only the same kind of exercise room as he used during his astronaut training, but there were also replicas of mechanical components for him to practice assembly and disassembling, as well as special machines to test said components in conditions imitating real space missions.

Monokuma still had things to say, but left when he saw that Kaito was too absorbed in his Lab to be able to hear him.

-0-

Angie's Lab, like Shuuichi's, was a separate building. It was pretty much an Atelier.

The building itself was notably asymmetrical. But it was colorful and had a sense of design that could not be denied.

Angie got inside, following Monokuma, and smiled upon seeing what she had to work with. There was paint and all kinds of paper and canvases, there were all sorts of materials that could be used for sculpting, and there were even screens that she could use in order to work in privacy.

"Atua likes this place!" Angie declared "It is the perfect place for him to express his artistic might through me."

"That is exactly what the managers like to hear!" Monokuma said.

"But Atua is concerned about something..." She said.

"What is it, Angie?" Monokuma asked.

"Atua usually only shows his best works to those who are worthy, since other people would not be able to bear seeing those works." Angie said "So... Will the people who are watching be okay?"

"You don't need to worry about that, Angie!" Monokuma declared "We have had people with similar talents before. The cameras in this whole place contain filters that will prevent the people watching from being harmed due to psychosomatic effects of what they see."

"Ah, Atua is relieved to hear that." Angie nodded.

-0-

Miu and Keebo's Labs were actually right next to each other, so the Monokumas brought them together.

They were two dome-like structures with a high-tech feel. But the difference was that Keebo's lab (on the left) was shaped in a way reminiscent of a pagoda, giving it a traditional air, despite it being obviously highly technological.

"Okay, Miu..." The Monokuma on Miu's side started to speak "For your Lab, we decided that the best option-" He was interrupted by Miu suddenly breaking into a sprint towards her Lab "Hey! I'm not done talking yet!"

The Inventor didn't give any sign that she had heard him. Instead, she pressed some sort of button on her clothes and her shoes changed into mechanical roller skates that activated and pushed her forward even faster.

The other Monokuma, who had been distracted by the situation, returned his glance to Keebo.

"For your Lab, we got the support of Professor Idabashi in order to create the perfect environment." He said.

"Really? I wonder what's inside, then..."

"Go on and see." Monokuma said.

Keebo nodded and started to walk towards his own Lab. Meanwhile, Miu had already gotten inside her Lab, since she didn't need to stop because the door was automatic. And just one look at the place, full of tools and materials, along with a whole bunch of energy generators, was enough to send her into ecstasy.

"AHHH!" She moaned "This is amazing! Maybe with this, I'll be able to complete my greatest invention: The Machine To Allow Me to Build Inventions While Sleeping!"

She cackled in delight. And at that point, Keebo had entered into his own Lab, and though his reaction was not as... over the top as Miu's, he also quite liked what he found.

The Lab had a clear Japanese theme in its structure and furnishings, and that theme was strong enough to not be overwhelmed by the high-tech feel that it also possessed. Wall scrolls, tatamis and wind chimes managing to not seen out of place alongside clear robotic parts and machines.

"And I was wondering about how I could access my modular equipment." Keebo said to himself "Pretty much everything is here."

-0-

Ryoma's Lab was a small stadium-like building, which contained a tennis court with all the amenities it implied, including a changing room. There were also all kinds of tools for exercise, and it was a set geared specifically for the kind of training Ryoma usually did, things to help train endurance, balance and flexibility, just to start with.

There were also tools specifically for tennis training, like a ball shooting machine. And in one of the side rooms, there were numerous videos, some of them from professional matches, while others contained training instructions from some of the best tennis coaches around the world.

All in all, it was definitely a perfect Lab for the Ultimate Tennis Pro. But even while checking all of that, Ryoma didn't once crack a smile, or show any enthusiasm.

The Monokuma accompanying him knew exactly the reason why, but he was following a plan, so he pretended not to know, and asked:

"What's wrong?"

"You know what's wrong." Ryoma called him out on it "I have already left tennis behind." He sighed "The only reason why I even accepted to be here was because my lawyer fought for two years to give me a chance... And I don't want to disappoint her."

"You say that..." Monokuma continued following the script "But I wonder how you will feel after seeing one last thing on your Lab..."

"Haaa..." Ryoma sighed "Okay, just take me to wherever it is you want me to go..."

The bear didn't dilly-dally after receiving Ryoma's consent. And the way to go wasn't long, since they only needed to walk towards a previously locked door that was close to the exercise room.

Ryoma had wondered what that door was about when they passed by earlier, and now it had become clear: It was supposed to be some sort of "surprise" for him.

Still, he didn't understand it, and even less when Monokuma opened the door and he found himself face to face with a mountain of letters.

"Ta-daaaaaa!" Monokuma yelled.

"And what is that?" Ryoma asked.

"Why don't you go and find out for yourself, huh?"

Seeing no other option, Ryoma walked forward and picked up one of the letters on the floor before starting to read it:

 _To Ryoma Hoshi_

 _I'm happy to hear about your participation on DRDH. It's been a while since you've entered on a court, but I still watch the videos of some of your important matches with some frequency._

 _Seeing one of your matches when I was younger was the thing that inspired me to start playing tennis, and I hope to be able to play against you someday._

 _Good luck to you._

 _From Maruo Eiichirou_

By the time Ryoma finished reading the letter, he was so stunned that he let it slip from his hand.

Almost without thinking, he took another letter from the pile and read it. And then another. And he kept reading at a feverish pace.

The letters were in many different styles. Some of them included things like drawing or pictures. There were some from young and old people, men and women. Some were handwritten while others were typed.

However, all of those letters had one thing in common: They were all from people who wanted to see Ryoma get through his difficult times. People who cared about him, even after his actions and the two year long trial that resulted.

"As soon as your participation in the season was decided, we started a letter writing drive for people to send their support to you." Monokuma said.

Ryoma didn't say anything, but the tears in his eyes told their own story.

-0-

Korekiyo didn't have a normal reaction to his Lab either.

The Lab itself was a sort of mini-museum that had its own separate building. It was full of books and artifacts, many of them very valuable and full of historical significance, even though they were mostly replicas, which was in keeping with Korekiyo's own Anthropological process:

He strongly believed in letting people keep the remnants of their culture instead of trying to "preserve" them, even if that lead to those very remnants ending up destroyed, because even the destruction of those things was also part of the way the human cultures worked. Instead, he simply kept records of what he saw, respecting the people he met as much as he could.

So, everything was pretty much perfect. And Korekiyo didn't really dislike his Lab either... But the way in which he showed his enthusiasm was... Different.

"Here... Here... And this one too..." Korekiyo muttered, as he took several pictures of the interior of his Lab. Then he annexed them all to a message and wrote:

 _My Lab is pretty cool. I think I will be able to do some good work here, just writing essays about my conclusions. How are you there? Are you having fun with your friends? There are some girls here who may become good friends to you, but I'll have to get to know them first. Until then..._

 _With Love, Kiyo._

And sent it to his sister.

-0-

Gonta followed the trend of Labs that had their own buildings. And his was actually a lot like Korekiyo's, being organized similarly to how a museum would do it. However, it was still pretty unique.

There were several terrariums, each one of them an entire ecosystem in and of itself. Each of them had an environmental system that allowed their condition to mimic that of a particular biome.

And there was so many of them, that the floor wasn't enough for all the terrariums, and the other ones were put in such a way as to act like extra floors to the building, floors which could only be reached through a system of ropes and nets. And the terrariums had a huge number of bug specimens in each of them.

Needless to say, Gonta loved it.

"So many bug friends! Gonta want to introduce bug friends to human friends!" He decided, then he thought of something and turned to Monokuma "Who made these? They must love bugs!"

"It was a cooperative project between our specialists in Lab construction and a group of Entomologists from all around the world." Was Monokuma's answer.

"I want to meet them. They must be good people, since they like bugs." Gonta said.

"I'm sure something can be arranged."

-0-

Lastly, it was Kirumi's Lab. And it was actually pretty simple, with not much of anything exaggerated. There were tools for all kinds of jobs, like cleaning and washing clothes, as well as a table with mannequins representing an elegant family, which would be used for Kirumi to practice image training.

However, the most important part was a small computer, that wasn't any different from what you would find in a normal home. Monokuma noticed Kirumi looking at it, and spoke:

"Yes. It's exactly like you are imagining. This computer can be used for you to attend managerial requests that do not require physical presence. You can use it to keep on your work even while inside." He said seriously "So... What do you think of it?"

Kirumi smiled "It is exactly what I needed to fulfill my duties as a Maid. Please inform the people who created it that I appreciate their effort."

"Right. I'll tell them that you said so." Monokuma said, then left.

Kirumi sat at the computer and entered into the Internet, accessing a page that required dozens of special identification procedures in order to enter.

It was very complicated, but that page was definitely worthy of that level of security. Because in it, Kirumi was able to see top-level governmental secret information.

The Ultimate Maid read through the information and thought 'Those are the most important issues recently. The best way to deal with them would be...'

And while thinking that, she started composing and e-mail that would also be sent through a series of very secure lines. An e-mail in which she outlined a complex plan of action to be implemented in order to address some recent issues for the government.

The final recipient of that e-mail was none other than the Prime-Minister of Japan.

-0-

The Ultimates were given some time to set themselves up and get used to their Labs. But the series wouldn't be as much fun if the students kept themselves locked inside their Labs the whole time. And one of the ways the show had of preventing that from happening was to set up events in which the participants would interact with each other.

And the first of those events would occur right on the first day, and it was exactly the one Monokuma had mentioned at the end of the Road of the Box of Surprises: The Isolation Chambers.

The Isolation Chambers were an event that would happen fifteen times over the course of the season. In each of those times, eight pairs of students would be selected to enter into the eight chambers, where they would have to talk for a while. No combinations were ever repeated, so by the end of the season, every possible combination of Ultimates had gone through that.

It was an easy way of making interact people who wouldn't do so under ordinary circumstances. And the first few times were always pretty exciting, because the selection of pairs was completely random, and the way it was done... Well, it made the participants pretty hyped up.

They were led to a stage which was beside the Isolation Chambers, those that seemed like spherical panic rooms. That was a huge screen on the wall next to the stage, and the screen had sixteen spaces for names, arranged in eight pairs.

"It is time for the Roulette!" Monokuma announced, in his usual grand fashion "Who will be the first set of pairs to enter inside the Isolation Chambers? This will be decided right now!"

Words appeared in one of the sixteen spaces. It was the name Kirumi Toujou, but it only remained there for a moment before changing to another name, and then it kept changing at an extremely high speed, looking somewhat like a roulette, exactly as Monokuma had said.

All the Ultimates looked closely. Wondering who would be the first to be chosen.

In a few moments, they got their answer. The roulette stopped at the name of... Kaede Akamatsu.

"Cool." The pianist said "I wonder who will be selected to go with me..."

The ritual repeated itself, this time with the space opposite of Kaede's space on the screen. The roulette spun and spun, with the Ultimates watching carefully to see what the result would be, and eventually it stopped at... Shuuichi Saihara.

Kaede looked at the detective "Looks like it's going to be us two, Shuuichi." She called to him.

"I guess so." He said, slightly embarrassed.

Kaede took the initiative to stand next to Shuuichi in order to wait for the rest to be decided, since the Isolation Chambers would only be open after that.

Then, the next name started to be selected, and the Ultimates watched it eagerly, though slightly less so in the case of Kaede and Shuuichi, since they weren't involved anymore.

Again, the names changed faster than the eye could track (in most cases), and eventually it stopped at Kaito Momota.

"Yes!" He declared "Now, we shall see who will have the honor of being my sidekick for this time!"

And again the roulette moved, and again it stopped. And the name it stopped at was Rantaro Amami.

"Okay. Let's see what the Ultimate Astronaut is like." Was Rantaro's reaction.

And once more, the roulette started with a new pair. And the next name it stopped at was... Himiko Yumeno.

"I hope the person I get is not a pain." Himiko said.

And the choice of her partner started like all the others. However, there were a couple of students who were watching the rolling names with a little too much anticipation.

One of them was Tenko Chabashira, and she was mentally chanting:

'Me, me, me...'

And the other was Kokichi Ouma, who was doing exactly the same thing:

'Me, me, me...'

And then the roulette stopped at... Tsumugi Shirogane.

Kokichi and Tenko were visibly disappointed. Himiko on the other hand...

"Oh... That is a good result." She said "It's good that I can talk with another mage while I'm here."

"Mage?" Tsumugi asked, then ignored it "Well, I'm sure it will be a fun conversation."

After that came another round of the roulette, and perhaps ironically, the next person to be selected was Tenko Chabashira.

After seeing her name there, she looked at the remaining students and started to chant in her head again:

'Please, don't let it be one of the males. Please.'

But her wishes would not be heeded. As the roulette of names ended up stopping at Kokichi Ouma.

"Ugh... Why did it have to be a degenerate male right from the start...?" She mumbled.

Kokichi, on the other hand, was slightly more positive about the result:

"This could be fun." He said, with a finger raised up to his face.

With that, half of the pairs had already been formed, so there was less randomness for the following pairs. However, it was still exciting for the ones who were remaining.

And the next Ultimate to be chosen for the Chambers was Kirumi Toujou.

"This will be the first opportunity for me to meet personally with my fellow Ultimates." She said "I'll have to make sure I figure out the best ways I can serve them."

And then the one who was chosen to partner with her ended up being Miu Iruma.

"Ohhh yeah! You better be fucking happy to be able to talk with the gorgeous girl genius, Miu Iruma!" The inventor said, in a hammy manner.

"I shall serve you the best I can." Kirumi said with an indulgent smile.

Another round, and the next Ultimate to be chosen was Angie Yonaga.

"I believe that the choice of my first partner will be the will of Atua." She said "Who will be the one to be enlightened about his great works?"

It turned out that person was Korekiyo, who didn't mind this turn of events. He walked towards the girl.

"I'd be interested in learning more about your home island. It seems fascinating." Korekiyo said "Not to mention that you could possibly become one of my sister's friends."

"I shall tell you all you want to know about the island and Atua." Angie said.

And again, the roulette started. But this time, since there were only four Ultimates remaining, it meant that the next pair to be determined would also decide the last pair, out of simply default.

And the first of that penultimate pair ended up being... K1B0, or Keebo.

"I hope my partner is not going to be someone who is robophobic." Keebo said "That would not be a good start for my time here."

There were only three options for who would pair up with the Ultimate Robot, and the result was Gonta Gokuhara. Who walked towards Keebo and greeted him cheerfully.

"Hello, Keebo! Do you like bugs?"

"I don't... dislike them?" Keebo answered.

"Gonta will tell you all about the wonders of bugs!" Gonta said.

And with that, the last pair was automatically determined to be Maki Harukawa and Ryoma Hoshi. Their reaction to that could be eloquently described as... neutral.

"A conversation, huh?" Ryoma said "It's been a while since I've had any sort of normal conversation."

"At least it's not one of the loud mouths..." Maki said.

"And with that, all the pairs for this round are decided!" Monokuma announced "Now, everyone of you should go into your Isolation Chambers!"

As if those words were a command, all of the Chambers opened, allowing the pairs of Ultimates to step inside.

-0-

Monokuma stepped into a small side room, the control room, from where he could see every single one of the conversations taking place inside the chambers.

As might be expected, those conversations would later be edited down into their best parts in order to appear on the broadcasts (with the other scenes being part of the extras), and some viewers would choose a single Chamber to watch during the online broadcast.

However, there was also another option for those who watched the live stream, and that was to follow Monokuma, who would try to go around and catch the good parts of each conversation by using the tools of the control room. The fact that this was one of the most popular watching options was testimony to how good he was at that.

"Right. I think Kaede and Shuuichi seemed to be getting along well." Monokuma said, with a slight suggestiveness in his voice "So, I guess it should be fun to begin with them."

He pressed a few buttons, and the screen recording Shuuichi and Kaede grew up to encompass the entire monitor.

-0-

"... And that's how I became an Ultimate, pretty basic, isn't it?" Kaede was finishing her explanation.

"No. I think liking piano so much that you eventually get good enough to win awards is cool." Shuuichi said.

"That's nice of you to say." Kaede said "But what about you? How did you become the Ultimate Detective?"

"Well, my uncle was a detective. And I worked as his assistant." Shuuichi said, a little timidly "But I never liked to deal with murders and things like that. So one day he told me about the case of a missing girl, and I became interested and ended up solving it, and returning her to her family." Shuuichi closed his eyes and smiled "Seeing them so happy after their reunion made me decide that I wanted to try doing it for a living, and I ended up solving a few more cases and earning that title."

"That's a great story!" Kaede exclaimed "And what other great cases you've dealt with?"

"Well... There was the time Rantaro and me traveled together to find his missing younger sisters."

"You mean Rantaro Amami, right? The Ultimate Adventurer?" Kaede asked. Upon Shuuichi's nod, she continued "That must be an amazing story."

Shuuichi rubbed the back of his head "Rantaro is better at telling this story than me, but I could talk about a few things..."

-0-

"Yeah, they're getting along alright." Monokuma said, then pressed the buttons to bring up another screen "How about Korekiyo and Angie?"

-0-

"Let's see... Adulthood ritual... DeepSea shipping website... Strange plants..." Korekiyo was writing down notes about what Angie had said "Your island is truly a remarkably interesting place, Angie. Perhaps one day I shall visit in order to see it for myself."

"Nyahaha! I'm glad you enjoyed hearing about my island." Angie laughed "But you still haven't told me your opinion about the Great God Atua."

Korekiyo flipped to a different part of his notes "Atua. Similar to the island gods worshiped in various places, he is attributed with responsibility over the environment. Besides that, he also has a great sociopolitical presence, with the channeler of Atua having extreme authority in all matters." He summarized "Leaving that aside... Angie, would you mind if I asked you a few questions?"

"Huh? Well, you are not a chosen one, so I can't truly teach you about Atua... But if it's for something else, sure!" Her expression flipped from disappointed to eager in an instant."

"It's nothing like that." Korekiyo reassured her "Okay then, first question: Do you prefer warm or cold climate?"

"Warm!" Angie said "My island is a tropical paradise, so why would I like the cold?"

"Hmm..." Was Korekiyo's response "Second question: Do you prefer giants or fairies?"

"Fairies. They're so small and cute!" Angie spoke in a more upbeat tone.

"Hmm..." Korekiyo said again, this time with a more positive tone "Third question: Do you prefer Bianca or Flora?"

"Bianca, of course. What kind of person would pick Flora?" Angie sounded positively scandalized.

"You'd be surprised." Korekiyo said "I found a few girls who answered Flora before." He shook his head "Obviously, they were not qualified to be my sister's friends."

"Ah... So that's what this is about." Angie nodded in understanding "Thankfully, there is no one like that on my island, otherwise they would feel Atua's divine punishment." She said, with threatening eyes.

"I'm sure they would." Korekiyo said "Now, as for the fourth question..."

-0-

"They seem happy." Monokuma said "Now, I wonder what's going on with Kokichi and Tenko..."

He pressed the buttons and the screen changed again.

-0-

"... And then the house of that corrupt mayor ended up completely covered in toilet paper!" Kokichi said, with a grin.

"Hahaha!" Tenko laughed "That's amazing, Kokichi! And your group didn't even have to do anything..."

"Yeah. But some of our best work was completely done by us, like that time..."

-0-

"What." Monokuma, who was watching, didn't really understand how those two were getting along so well "Rewind!" He ordered, pressing more keys on the computer.

And the footage started rewinding to an earlier point...

-0-

"Why did I have to get a degenerate male right on my first try..." Tenko lamented, then looked at Kokichi "You! You should get a sex-change operation as soon as possible!"

Kokichi seemed shocked for a moment, and then his eyes started to water "But that... that..." He struggled to get his emotions under control, before speaking again "Tenko... Can I tell you a secret?"

"It better not be anything lewd!" She warned.

"No. It's just... I'm already a girl!" He started crying.

"What?!" Tenko shouted in surprise. She didn't know what to make of either the confession, or the fact that Kokichi was crying in front of her "But... How is this possible? There was supposed to be an equal number of boys and girls in this show... And you dress like a boy?"

"Ahh..." Kokichi started wiping away his tears "It's a sad story, but I am being forced to pretend to be a boy..."

"What?!" Tenko shouted again, this time in outrage "Who would do such a thing?"

"It's a complicated story... My parents were the heirs to an old Japanese noble house. But there were lots of enemies of their house that tried to interfere with them to get money and power for themselves... And when I was born, they were going to make an issue because I wasn't a boy, and thus not a 'proper successor', whatever that means." He took a deep breath "So my parents were forced to pretend that I was actually a boy, and when they died I managed to inherit their title... But I still have to pretend to be a boy, otherwise the family friends will lose the protection of the status of the family..."

"That... That is so sad!" Tenko started bawling.

"But I won't be discouraged... Because I have my friends!" Kokichi declared.

"I'll be your friend too!" Tenko declared, then she had a sudden thought "Wait a minute... Won't they figure out that you are not a boy once they watch the show?"

"You don't need to worry about that!" Kokichi reassured her "They will just think I was lying to you about being a girl. I am known to be a liar, after all."

"Wow, that's really smart!" Tenko praised him.

-0-

"Ah. So that's how it happened." Monokuma spoke blankly.

Then he brightened up "Well, since everything seems to be okay with those two, I think looking at Maki and Ryoma would be the best for now."

And he changed the screen again.

-0-

"And... And I received so many letters of support from people..." Ryoma was talking to Maki "But after all I've done, can I simply go back? Despite killing so many people, can I really be Ryoma Hoshi the tennis player, instead of Ryoma Hoshi the prisoner?"

If someone who knew Maki well were to be watching at that point, they would notice that she was feeling very uncomfortable at that point.

It wasn't exactly a new thing for her. Maki's stand-offish attitude was successful in keeping most people away, but sometimes her silence was mistaken for being "good at listening", and she was subjected to having others pouring out their hearts to her. Still, she never exactly got used to it.

There was no way to run, however, and Maki knew that Ryoma was expecting her to say something, and things would become even more uncomfortable if she remained silent. Thankfully, she had some personal experience to draw on when it came to that particular subject.

"I think... There is really no difference between the two." She spoke cautiously "You are the same person, regardless of what you are doing. I don't think people change that easily, so all that matters is what you want to do."

Ryoma looked at her in surprise "I see..." He muttered "You're probably right. And nothing will happen if I don't try anything. I will follow my heart and deal with whatever problems may come." He nodded at Maki "Thank you."

"You're welcome." Maki said, relieved.

There was a moment of silence before Ryoma spoke again "Actually, there was something I was curious about."

"What?" Maki asked, warily.

"You used a really remarkable technique during the challenge. But where could you have learned the Shadow Step?" Ryoma asked.

Now Maki was uncomfortable due to a different reason entirely "Well... Umm... Actually... It's an interesting story..."

"Hm?" Ryoma showed his curiosity.

"To tell you the truth, it was taught to me by someone." Maki started making stuff up "It was a girl who looked really young but didn't speak like a kid. She noticed how I was always running around trying to get the sales to buy food for the orphanage, so she offered to teach me something that would make me go faster."

"Ohh..." Ryoma said, believing it completely. He had experience with that sort of stuff.

"I accepted it, and she taught me some preliminary steps and told me to practice." Maki continued, emboldened by his reaction "I just kept doing it until I got good at it, and it helped with a lot of things in the orphanage."

"It also seems like it helped to increase your natural physical abilities quite a bit." Ryoma said "I'm sure it must not have been easy to get it to this point. No wonder you're the Ultimate Child Caregiver."

"I guess so..." Maki said, feeling like she'd dodged a bullet (a feeling she knew very well)

-0-

"I feel like that was the most interesting part." Monokuma said "And next we will go to... ah, let's say Keebo and Gonta. Why not?"

And he made the screen change once more.

-0-

"... And then there is also the modular microwave, which allows me to prepare popcorn and all kinds of instant meals." Keebo was excitedly telling Gonta about his modular equipment and their uses.

It seemed like it had been going on for a while, since Gonta was too polite to interrupt Keebo's speech, and the robot was too engrossed in it to wonder if it could be a little too much.

Still, eventually the Ultimate Entomologist wasn't able to keep his curiosity in check anymore.

"Are any of your equipment good for catching bugs?" He asked.

Keebo stopped and put a hand to his mouth, thinking seriously "I guess my special vision and hearing upgrades could help. Since they would make it easier to detect the bugs. The vacuum option would also be good, if you managed to adjust it to suck up bugs."

"That seems nice. Perhaps Keebo could go in bug-hunting expedition with Gonta." The Entomologist said.

"Perhaps." Keebo said "Also, I wanted to ask you about what you meant when you said you wanted to be a Gentleman."

"Ah, that is Gonta's dream. Gonta-"

-0-

"Those two are just way too nice for their own good." Monokuma said "I know some of the viewers like that sort of thing, but it is too boring for me. Who could be doing something interesting...?

"Hmm... I think Kaito and Rantaro should have something fun at the moment." Monokuma said.

Then he changed the screen.

-0-

"... And then the Australian army invaded the complex and I used that distraction to slip away with the briefcase full of incriminating documents." Rantaro was finishing the story "Apparently Shuuichi managed to find the missing daughter of a major, so they completely believed him about the gang. And after that, I just had to deliver that briefcase to the right hands and it was all over."

"Hahaha!" Kaito laughed "Shuuichi seems like a great sidekick!"

"Yeah. He's my best friend, pretty much." Rantaro said "Sometimes I was the one who had to act as the sidekick, though. Shuuichi could get surprisingly intense at certain points."

"I can understand that." Kaito nodded "The best sidekicks are all like that."

"Right." Rantaro agreed "And how about you? How does the Ultimate Astronaut spend his time?"

"Well, training mostly." Kaito seemed slightly embarrassed "I still haven't been able to get into an actual mission, so I keep training in order to prepare myself for any situation, so that I can deal with whatever happens."

"So, you learn mechanics, you train your body..." Rantaro prompted.

"Well, that too. But I also do things like training to be able to play basketball in microgravity, or move around at high gravity by rolling on a ball, or switch out fuses with my teeth... That kind of stuff." Kaito said.

"You really going to need to do those things in a space mission?" Rantaro asked.

"You never know." Kaito said seriously.

-0-

"That one seems like a good source for extra scenes." Monokuma said "Next, let's look in on Himiko and Tsumugi."

Another screen change.

-0-

"Ohh, there are so many possibilities for you to cosplay! You could be Kiki, or Cha-Cha, or Sakura, or Akko-chan, or Hime-chan, or Schierke, or Momo, or Nanoha, or Doremi, or Cotton, or Melody, or Ran..." Tsumugi was in a trance.

"Huh... That all seems like a bit of a pain, but perhaps I could use magic to get into the outfits quickly..." Himiko spoke.

"No, that won't do." Tsumugi spoke in a serious tone "Quick clothing changes are fine in certain aspects, but you can't just rely on them for everything. The most fun part of cosplaying is the labor of love that goes into preparing and putting on your outfit."

"Ehhh..." Himiko said "I guess I can understand that. When I go do my magic shows, I have to work to make everything perfect so that my magic works in the best way possible." She sighed "I guess I could do it with you, if you accepted doing your thread magic as part of my show."

"Thread magic? But what I do is-" Tsumugi's mouth was covered by Himiko's hand.

"Magic." Himiko said, then removed her hand.

"But it's actually-" The same thing happened.

"Magic." Himiko repeated, with a bigger emphasis.

"Okay. It's magic, I guess." Tsumugi said, when Himiko removed her hand again.

Himiko nodded, satisfied.

-0-

"Looks like those two are surprisingly in sync." Monokuma noted "Now there is just one more pair I haven't checked in on yet."

And with those words, he changed the screen to show Miu and Kirumi.

-0-

"... And you should set up a few goals to work towards in terms of inventions. If you simply try to do things as they come to mind, you'll end up with a bunch of unfinished stuff. You need to have discipline." Kirumi spoke in a serious but kind voice.

"Yes. You're right. I need to do the best I can." Miu agreed meekly "I have the talent to really improve humanity, after all."

"Indeed. It would be a waste of your talents if you weren't able to reach your full potential." Kirumi said, and smiled "As the Ultimate Maid, with my utmost dedication to serving, doing my best to make the world better is simply common sense."

It might have seemed strange that the Maid was giving what were basically orders to someone else, but that was part of what made Kirumi so special. She served her masters as well as she could, and sometimes that meant doing what they needed, instead of what they wanted.

"Speaking of that..." Miu said, regaining some of her composure "Is there something you want me to invent? I mean, something that you think could be used to serve everyone?"

"Hmm... That is a good question." Kirumi said, thinking seriously "I guess if I wanted something that didn't exist... It should be something that would make it easier to train other Maids." She eventually said "If I could train a legion of Maids to serve other people... That would be the best possibility."

Miu got surprised to see that Kirumi's voice actually revealed a trace of eagerness. It seemed like the idea really appealed to her. This caused the Inventor to regain even more of her composure "Then it's decided!" She yelled "I'll make something so great, you will worship my very hands! You can bet your panties on that!"

Kirumi simply smiled indulgently again.

-0-

"And that's another interesting pair." Monokuma said "It seems like this season will be even more fun than usual!"


	3. Himiko's Magic Show

"Tell me again, how did you manage to set all this up in a single night?" Tsumugi asked Himiko.

'All this', that Tsumugi was talking about, was nothing less than a fully functional stage, with curtains, audience seats, a backstage area, a big water tank and a raised tank containing a huge number of piranhas.

"I used my magic." Was Himiko's response "And besides, it's not complete yet."

"Not complete?" Tsumugi ignored the part about magic "What else do you still need to prepare?"

"I need a set of heavy chains and padlocks, I need a machine that can cool down the water, and I need the cooperation of you and Kirumi." Himiko said.

"Well... I don't mind helping," Tsumugi said "and I'm sure Kirumi will also help... But what is the purpose of all those things? What exactly is the magic trick you're trying to do?"

"It's extreme escape water magic." Himiko said seriously "Essentially, I'll drop down into the water, which will have been cooled to temperatures capable of causing hypothermia, the water tank will then be closed and locked with chains and padlock. Ah, and I'll also be restrained so I won't be able to move my arms or legs." She said, in a nonchalant tone.

Tsumugi was already getting concerned, and Himiko's next words didn't ease up her worries at all.

"Obviously, the water tank will not be covered with a curtain, so everyone will be able to see what I'll be doing. If I don't manage to escape after a minute and ten seconds, piranhas will drop down from the raised tank and eat me." Somehow, even that was delivered in a nonchalant tone "The part you and Kirumi will play in the trick is simple. You'll come backstage to deliver me a replacement for my show clothes, and Kirumi will check them over and keep watch over me to make sure I don't slip something inside while I'm putting them on to make my escape without magic."

"That sounds pretty... extreme." Tsumugi managed to say.

"It's __extreme__ escape water magic." Himiko said "It's supposed to be extreme."

"Aren't you afraid of dying, though?" Tsumugi asked.

"No." Himiko said firmly "With all those Ultimates in attendance, I won't die even if I fail." She hesitated for a moment "However, I am afraid of failing to perform the magic. I have never done it before, and it would be bad if my first magic show while inside of here ended in failure."

Despite Himiko's blank face, Tsumugi could tell that this was really something that was worrying her. So, the Cosplayer decided to reassure the girl:

"It's okay. You're the Ultimate Mage, aren't you?" Tsumugi said "You can do this."

"You're right." Himiko nodded slowly "I can do this. I will bring smiles to everyone." She looked at Tsumugi "Does that mean you will help me?"

"I'll have the chance to put you in a cute witch cosplay, so how could I refuse?" Tsumugi grinned at her.

"Ahh... Perhaps I may have miscalculated a bit." Himiko said, warily.

-0-

One of the most important aspects of the reality show "Death Road of Despair and Hope", was the fact that instead of simply acting freely, or having a rigid schedule, the show allowed the Ultimates to set up their own events, with any plans that they made being helped out by the producers of the show through Monokuma, in exchange for making it easier for their results to be filmed.

As such, Himiko's magic show got ready to be done in a very short amount of time, and every student received "invitations" to be at the viewing area at around 9:00 PM. Since it would be a night, lights had been set up above the stage and viewing area.

The Ultimates started trickling in around 8:30 PM, starting with Tenko and Kokichi, who got seats at the middle of the first row, clearly excited. And the others weren't too far behind. The last two to arrive were Kaede and Shuuichi, who sat at the last row.

There were fourteen Ultimates seated at the audience, while Tsumugi and Himiko were waiting in the backstage area.

"It's almost time to start." Tsumugi said "How are you feeling?"

"I-I-I-I'm o-okay. I ca-can do th-this." Himiko said, trembling.

"But... You're trembling in fear..." Tsumugi noted.

"N-no... Th-this isn't fe-fear... I-I am trembling with excitement!" Himiko spoke with determination.

"Really? Because it really seems like trembling with fear to me." Tsumugi said.

"J-just go out there and start th-things off, okay?" Himiko was impatient.

"Okay..." Tsumugi said, and walked to the stage.

She was actually wearing a semi-cosplay, with clothes similar to Rio, from the eponymous anime. It wasn't a particularly well-known anime, to the point where she would be surprised if any of the Ultimates had heard of it, but some of the viewers of the show definitely would, and the clothes were pretty suited for the occasion, specially since her version of them was less skimpy and more elegant.

"Ladies and Gentlemen!" She started to announce, her voice being heard quite easily due to a lack of distracting noise "It is time for an opportunity that doesn't come easily... You guys are going to be receiving a private magic show from the Ultimate Mage, Himiko Yumeno!"

Kokichi and Tenko cheered. The other students did the same thing, except less loudly. And hearing her cue, Himiko stepped forward into the stage as well. She was wearing her usual clothes, since she was going to change right before the trick anyway.

"Tonight, you are going to see the Extreme Escape Water Magic!" She spoke in a grand tone, though her low voice showed that she wasn't completely confident "I'll let my assistant explain how it works."

Tsumugi took back the word "You can see here this water tank, which will be the main focus of the magic. Any member of the audience who wants to can come check the water tank to see that there are no tricks on it. The water has also been cooled down to 0° Celsius, and you can check that for yourselves as well."

A few of the Ultimates, like Shuuichi and Kaito, got up on the stage and looked around, searching for anything strange and checking the temperature. Needless to say, they didn't find anything that looked like a trick of any kind.

And when the members of the audience were back on their seats, Tsumugi started speaking again:

"Also, in order to make sure that Himiko is unable to hide anything on her clothes in order to escape, we would like to request Kirumi's cooperation."

The Ultimate Maid got up, alert.

"What is your request?" She asked.

"I have here a set of clothing for Himiko to use during the trick." Tsumugi produced the clothes "We would like for you to come backstage to check the clothes and make sure there's nothing in them, and also keep watch over Himiko as he is getting dressed to make sure she doesn't put anything on them."

"Understood. I will do my best." Kirumi said.

-0-

It didn't take long. Kirumi got backstage very quickly, and her efficiency made the whole process go smoothly, then the trio went back to the stage, and everyone could see Himiko's new clothes.

It wasn't hard to recognize where they had come from. Himiko was dressed in the school uniform of the characters from Little Witch Academia. The robe with a short skirt and long sleeves, the red belt, the boots and pointy hat... Everything was there.

Tenko loudly commented about how cute Himiko looked, and Kokichi gave a thumbs up. The other Ultimates reacted in more subtle ways, but they all approved of the choice. It really fit the Ultimate Magician, and was a small show of the talent of the Ultimate Cosplayer.

"But that's not all that we needed Kirumi's help for, either." Tsumugi said to the audience "We will also need her help in order to properly restrain Himiko."

Tsumugi opened a box that was on stage and took out of it a set of ropes and chains.

"Please, check those to make sure they have no tricks and restrain Himiko as best as you can." She told Kirumi.

And just as expected, the Ultimate Maid showed exceptional skill even for such a thing, quickly checking the restraints and then tying up Himiko in a very professional way, making sure she wouldn't even be able to stand.

Himiko was put on top of the opening of the water tank, which had already been closed. That way, she would fall into the water as soon as it was opened again.

"Thank you for the help, Kirumi." Tsumugi said.

"It was my pleasure to serve." Kirumi said.

The Maid went back to her place on the audience, and Tsumugi returned to her presentation:

"But even that is not all!" She declared to the audience "After Himiko has entered the tank, it will be closed and locked." She stopped for effect "And there is also another thing to note.

"The top part of this tank is not completely air tight. In fact, it has a lot of gaps." Tsumugi said "Those gaps are far too small to allow Himiko to leave by them, but they are big enough to allow certain things to get in." She pointed towards the piranha tank "Like those piranhas. They are small, but don't let that fool you, they are more than vicious enough to eat Himiko alive in seconds."

She stopped for effect, then continued "If Himiko has not escaped from the tank after one minute and fifteen seconds, this tank will open, and the piranhas will fall down into Himiko's tank. That would be a bad thing."

Tsumugi then waved her arm in Himiko's direction "Now that everything is explained, it's time for our Himiko to show us how powerful her magic is. We're going in three... two... one... Go!" She shouted, and Himiko was dropped into the water.

A timer lit up at the back of the stage, starting at 1:15 and going down.

The audience held their breath along with Himiko, as they saw her dropping to the bottom of the tank, dragged by her chains. The water was clear and Himiko was very visible, letting everyone see that she didn't seem hurried at all.

In fact, Himiko seemed positively relaxed, slowly turning to put herself upright. She looked at the audience meaningfully, as if saying "are you seeing this? Prepare to be amazed" and then she started her show.

Her arm seemed to phase through one of the chains, allowing her to reach up and scratch her own head. Then she moved her arm back and put it into the chain again with a shrug, causing the audience to laugh.

She proceeded to free both her legs to allow herself to sit down at the bottom with legs crossed. Then she freed her arms and stretched a little bit, before reaching at her head and taking off her hat for a small bow. And instead of actually putting it back, she threw the hat aside and somehow produced an identical hat from behind her back, putting that one on.

Himiko's antics entertained the viewers, but slowly people started to get worried. Time was passing, and even though Himiko was showing a lot of skills, nothing that she did seemed to get her any closer to escaping from the tank.

But they didn't need to worry. Himiko was an Ultimate after all, and she was in her element. When the time went down to 15 seconds left, the girl restrained herself fully again, messing with the chains and rope to show that they were real, before turning to the audience and winking.

There was a flash of white, and suddenly Himiko had disappeared. The only thing still in the tank was the hat she had discarded.

The audience looked around in wonder, confused as to how such a thing had happened. Several seconds passed with none of them being able to find Himiko.

"Where are you looking at?" Came a voice from behind the audience.

They looked back, and there was Himiko, seeming amused. She notably seemed to be completely dry, from her clothes to her hair, despite apparently having just left the tank.

"Extreme Escape Water Magic!" Himiko declared, with a bow, as the timer went to zero and the piranhas were released into the water.

There was a moment of silent comprehension, and then the audience erupted into a cheer, together with the people who were watching the show live.

"Ladies and Gentlemen!" Tsumugi declared "That was Himiko Yumeno's magic show!"

The Ultimates got up from their seats and went to congratulate Himiko, who smiled upon seeing the smiles adorning each of their faces.

-0-

Later on, Kaede and Shuuichi were walking together back to the dorms, and talking about what they had witnessed.

"That was amazing!" Kaede praised "I knew Himiko was good, but I didn't realize she was that good."

"Yeah." Shuuichi agreed "I guess she isn't the Ultimate Magician for nothing. She really knows how to put on a show."

"I have no idea how she did all that." Kaede said, then looked at Shuuichi with a sly smile on her face "How about you? Has the Ultimate Detective managed to see through the show?"

Shuuichi seemed a bit embarrassed "I have a few theories, but I'd have to investigate in order to make sure, which would be a bit too disrespectful."

"In that case, what are your theories?" Kaede asked, intrigued "How would you explain what she did?"

"Well. I think the first thing that needs to be explained is how she dealt with the cold water." Shuuichi said "Diving into water that cold is something very dangerous, because the boy will enter a state of involuntary breathing, where you may breathe in water and drown without being able to control it."

Kaede made a face. That really wasn't nice to think about "So how do you think Himiko may have dealt with it?"

Shuuichi started to explain "I have three theories about that. The first is that Himiko could be using some sort of plugs on her mouth and nose, that she put on after speaking her part. The mouth plug could be moved with her tongue, so she would be able to leave it open to be able to breathe until it was time to go in the water."

Kaede nodded. That seemed reasonable.

"The second theory is that she could use special breathing techniques in order to control her involuntary reactions." Shuuichi said "That's a lot less likely, but I've seen people capable of doing things like that, and you never know what a magician would learn in order to create their tricks."

Kaede raised an eyebrow. It seemed like Shuuichi's adventures with Rantaro were a lot more strange than she had realized.

"The third theory is that, in between the time where we checked the temperature of the water, and the time where Himiko dropped into it, there could have been a special mechanism heating up the water." Shuuichi said.

"Ohhh..." Kaede made a sound of understanding "It did take a while for Tsumugi to finish all the explanations and Himiko to be restrained."

"Yeah. That's quite a likely possibility." Shuuichi said "Now, the second problem is how Himiko would have been able to remove her own restraints."

Kaede nodded and waited for Shuuichi to continue.

"The first option is that Himiko had stored special strings on her hair, and manipulated them to alter the restraints in such a way to allow the things she did, combined with her sleight of hand techniques." Shuuichi explained "The second option is that the things we saw could have been a recording."

"A recording?" Kaede asked, confused.

Shuuichi nodded "We saw everything through the glass of the tank, but what if right on the other side of the glass was a TV screen?"

Kaede made a noise of realization, and waited for the rest of the explanation.

"The screen could have been broadcasting the feed from a camera inside the tank, to make us believe that there was no screen, since we would have been able to see the hands of the people who went to check the water." Shuuichi said "And before Himiko was dropped in, the feed could have been changed to a recording taken earlier, which would be easy to synch up due to how well-timed the start of the trick was."

"Wow..." Kaede muttered, it really was something difficult to imagine.

"In that case, she could have asked Kirumi to do her restraints earlier, except by putting trick chains and ropes instead, so it would be easy to show off those tricks." Shuuichi continued "After that, there was one last thing that needs explaining: The way Himiko could have escaped from the tank."

Kaede nodded. That was indeed the core of the trick.

"I imagine she might have used a hidden hatch on the bottom of the tank, since we couldn't examine it as we couldn't lift up the tank." Shuuichi said "If she used the screen trick, then this method had two parts. First, she would have to record the things that we saw, but after the wink, she could have simply swam up for air, since the tank wouldn't need to be closed for such a recording to be made.

"The flash would have been an editing trick, to disguise the fact that the feed would be switched back to the tank camera." Shuuichi explained "And since we wouldn't be able to see anything during the real trick, Himiko would have a lot of time to free herself, open the hatch and go down while her recording was keeping our attention."

Kaede nodded, to show that she was still following the explanation.

"There should be some empty space inside the stage, where Himiko could replace her wet clothes with dry ones (she would have let her hat inside the tank before leaving, to conform with the recording), she would also be able to dry herself off." Shuuichi then seemed a little unsure "I don't know how she would have dried her hair so fast, but there are lots of ways, including the possibility that she used some sort of product on her hair that repelled water."

"Right..." Kaede also found it strange.

"After that, she could leave the inside of the stage in the backstage direction, and then use her strings to pull herself up and move above the audience. We wouldn't be able to see it because of the lights." Shuuichi concluded.

"Right. That explains that." Kaede said "But what about if she hadn't used a screen trick, how could she do all of that?"

Shuuichi sounded even more unsure, but talked anyway "Again, the only possible escape route would have been through a hatch at the bottom of the tank, but maybe there was no need to open it." He gained a bit more confidence as he spoke "Perhaps it was made in a way that seemed to be just the bottom of the tank, but in fact was an opening. She could have used sleight of hand to wrap herself up in some kind of slingshot while she was doing her stuff, and then the flash of light could have been a previously prepared trick to distract her attention and allow her to be pulled down into the secret hatch."

"And then she would have to dry herself and move pretty fast, huh?" Kaede said.

"Yes." Shuuichi said "She could have used another slingshot to throw herself over the audience fast, but to dry herself and change clothes during such a short time would definitely be a pretty difficult trick. I'm sure there are ways, but I don't know enough to make a judgment." He finished.

Kaede crossed her arms and closed her eyes "Yeah..." Then she opened them again "Himiko is pretty good. I wonder what other things she can do."

"I'm sure we'll see more shows from her." Shuuichi said.


	4. Free Time 1 (Two Trios)

As mentioned before, the academy grounds were huge, they were really impressively big, and Monokuma had told the Ultimates to go explore for themselves, so it was in that spirit that Rantaro brought Shuuichi and Kaede along to a small adventure in exploring some of the more secret corners of the place.

It wasn't long before they found something particularly noteworthy. It was a strange house-like building with no windows and a strange door that didn't have any visible means of opening. On the four outside walls were sliding tile puzzles, but none of them seemed capable of forming an actual recognizable picture, so it would be hard to say what organization of the puzzles could be defined as "correct".

Obviously, the three got very curious about what was going on in that place. Rantaro and Kaede looked around in search of clues, and even tried moving the tiles to make something, though it all failed. Shuuichi, on the other hand, was simply watching and thinking.

Eventually, the two of them got tired of their unsuccessful attempts and decided to see what was Shuuichi's opinion.

"What do you think, Shuuichi?" Rantaro asked "Did you figure anything out?"

The Detective was about to answer, but something seemed to attract his attention from the corner of his eyes and he closed his eyes, looking to be in deep thought.

And then things got weird.

Shuuichi started to smile strangely, and then mutter weird things like "Yeah... Step right inside...", and "There's always space for one more...". He also put his hands forward and started moving them like he was mimicking driving a car.

"What is he doing?" Rantaro asked, not really expecting an answer.

However, he got one, though it was pretty unhelpful "He is thinking, of course." Kaede said.

Rantaro looked at her strangely "And what's with all those mutters and gestures?"

"Ah. That is called a visualization." Kaede explained "It's a technique to help draw facts together and reach conclusions. In his case he is imagining himself driving around and picking up beautiful escort girls."

Rantaro didn't know what to say "I lived with him for two years and never saw that. And how did you know that was what he was doing?"

"I'm not surprised, since that is mostly a puberty thing." Kaede said "And I know because I do the same thing." She smiled.

Rantaro still didn't know what to say, but he was spared of having to come up with something by Shuuichi suddenly going "That's it!"

With his remarkable experience in the unusual, Rantaro was quick to take advantage of Shuuichi's interruption to completely abort his conversation with Kaede. He turned to the Detective and asked: "What did you figure out?"

"These sliding puzzles aren't meant to form into concrete images." Shuuichi started to explain "Instead, the fact that this house is perfectly placed do that each side corresponds with a cardinal direction is supposed to be a clue." He pointed out "Since it has to do with cardinal directions, I thought about maps, and by imagining the map of this place as if composed of four sections, I can reference these sections with each sliding puzzle, and..."

Shuuichi got to work, quickly moving around tiles like he was a pro, finishing up his work in one puzzle to go to the next. And then he finally finished the last one. A "ding!" sound echoed, and the door to the building opened.

"Perfect!" Shuuichi cheered with a fist pump.

"That was amazing, Shuuichi!" Kaede praised him.

"Just what I expected from you." Rantaro said.

"Come on, let's go see what's inside!" Shuuichi said, his unusual cheer proof of how much fun he had with the puzzle.

The other two followed Shuuichi inside, and they froze when they saw the interior of the building.

'Welcome to the Trick House!' A plaque proclaimed right at the entrance.

And it wasn't kidding. There were dozens of puzzles around, from buttons that turned lights on and off and the goal was to turn a number of them on, to something that looked like a Mastermind variant, to a small block pushing puzzle in a box, there were all kinds of things.

And that wasn't even counting the huge amount of doors, password protected safes, and slots in walls to put specific objects. It was like they had stepped inside some sort of really overdone Escape Room flash game.

The Detective looked at everything with a huge smile on his face. Kaede and Rantaro looked at each other and shrugged, resigned to spend the rest of the day inside that place.

-0-

The world was peaceful.

The history of that peace was long and complex, involving star-crossed romances, harrowing suicide missions, a complex game between multiple secret organizations and a girl who posted prank videos on the internet.

However, the one true source of peace, and the center of all those events was simple, and could be summed up in only two words: Kart Racing.

Kart Racing had taken the world by storm, with even fierce enemies and religious disputes finding understanding in the races. The concept of Kart Racing transcended the barriers of simple sport and competition to become an integral part of the human condition. Kart Racing tracks and their specialized karts had spread to literally every corner of the world, from the highest mountains to the deepest seas.

And of course, there was a track (in fact, three tracks) and karts available for the Ultimates who were part of the show. That was one of the inalienable rights of every human being, after all. And three Ultimates were approaching one of the tracks. Or more accurately, two Ultimates were approaching one of the tracks while they more or less carried the third Ultimate, who was being held in between the two by her arms.

As might perhaps be expected, those three Ultimates were Tenko Chabashira, Kokichi Ouma and Himiko Yumeno, and Himiko was the one who was being carried in the middle.

"Ahh... What a pain..." The Magician said "Why are you so excited even though the first race is not going to be for a while...?"

"That's because we want to see the customized karts we're going to be using!" Tenko said.

"Yeah." Kokichi agreed "I'm sure they are going to be just as fun as our research labs."

And so, the trio got inside to take a look at their very own karts.

+0+

But of course things could not be simple. Each kart was in a small closed garage, and they were all appropriately labeled, but none of the three Ultimates managed to find a way to actually open their garages.

It was at that point that a Monokuma appeared.

"What are you guys doing here? Are you trying to get an advantage before the race?!" He snarled, before laughing "'Cause I would approve of that, puhuhuhuhuhu!"

"Yep! We're going to sabotage the karts of the others!" Kokichi answered brightly, then put a finger to his lips "But that's a lie."

Tenko shook her head in bemusement "We just want to take a look at our customized karts. How do we open the garages?"

"The students do not have the authority to open the kart garages on their own." Monokuma said "But... I can open them for you to give a small preview of what you're going to be riding." He pointed at each of them in turn "Who wants to go first?"

"Me, me, me! Pick me!" Kokichi raised a hand to the air and waved it around "Pick me!"

"In that case, it shall be... Himiko." He pointed at her.

"Ahhh..." Kokichi whined.

The garages were distributed in two lines that faced each other, as if they were houses in a suburban street. Monokuma brought the trio in front of Himiko's garage and clapped his paws together, causing the garage door to begin rising slowly.

"The kart that we have prepared for the Ultimate Magician-" He started to speak.

"I'm a mage." Himiko interrupted.

"is called Tricky Treader." Monokuma continued as if she hadn't said anything "It is a jack of all trades in terms of speed, resilience and handling. Its special ability is the Magical Cloak, which allows it to become invisible for up to five seconds each time, with a recharge time of thirty seconds."

As he was speaking, the slowly rising door revealed the appearance of the kart. It was medium sized and his colors were a combination of a dark purple and light silver. The details of the kart gave the impression of curtains, along with small white feathers, swords and other similar implements. The most unusual part was a rigid ring that surrounded the kart like an old-school safety measure.

Himiko couldn't help but be excited, even though it was hard to tell from her face. She actually focused on the kart and Kokichi easily noticed her interest.

"It looks really pretty." He said nonchalantly.

"Just like Himiko." Tenko nodded.

"Huh." Himiko said, and her face became even more blank.

They noticed Himiko's embarrassment and secretly congratulated each other.

+0+

The next two reveals were pretty much the same. Tenko's kart was called Counter Wheel, it was slow but very resilient and its special ability was "Aether Return", which was capable of storing and releasing kinetic energy. While Kokichi's kart was the Supreme Drive, it was a fragile speedster and its special ability was "Ruler Time", which was capable of interfering with the controls of nearby karts.

Tenko's kart was large sized while Kokichi's was small sized. The design of Tenko's kart was mostly based on the gold color combined with steel tones, and the details were elegant and reminded one of those Chinese temples, it's suspension was raised like a monster car. Kokichi's kart was chaotically multicolored with details based on the insignia of his organization, its seat was a disproportional throne, giving it a comical appearance.

There was the requisite owwing and awwing at their karts, but then Himiko gave her own version of an ultimatum:

"Are we done here? I'm getting tired."

Kokichi and Tenko looked at each other with panic in their eyes. The latter reacted first:

"Now that I think about it, what do you usually do for fun, Himiko?" She asked in a very fake casual tone.

"Hm...? Well, it's been a while since I last rewatched my favorite soaps..." She said.

"You could show one of them to us." Kokichi took the plunge.

+0+

15 Hours Later – Himiko's Room

All three Ultimates were silent and watching the TV.

"Valentine, I know that it was you who was sleeping with my wife ten years ago! Carlos is your son!" The story was reaching the climax.

"It is true that I was sleeping with your wife, but I can't be Carlos' father. Because... I am a woman!"

"What? That can't be! There's no one else who could have fathered Carlos...!"

"I'm sorry... You two..."

"Amelia?!" Two voices shouted at once.

"The truth is... I lost the baby... Ricardo, I lost your son..." There was a pause "I didn't want you to know... So I secretly adopted Carlos..."

"So... That was the case... I understand now..." Ricardo said "It's okay." He embraced Amelia.

"But... I betrayed you twice... I lied to everyone..."

"And I already forgave you for that, didn't you? Besides... Carlos needs us three."

"But he isn't even your son... Wait, three?!"

"Carlos may not be my flesh and blood, but he is the son I raised. And yes, three. I noticed how happy you and Valentine made each other, not to mention how much of a good influence she is on Carlos." Ricardo looked at said woman "I would not be against sharing Amelia with you, as long as there is no more lies, and we all need to be there for Carlos."

Valentine didn't respond with words, but she walked a few steps and joined in with the hug.

Then the credits started.

"Ah... I love happy endings." Himiko said "What did you two think?"

Tsumugi's expression was... interesting "I... I kinda lost track of things. What happened with the subplot about the evil pharmaceutical company?"

"I... Think Valentine dealt with them through those documents about drug dealers he sent to the police...?" Kokichi theorized "I'm more worried about whatever happened to Ricardo's neutral triplet. We know the evil one died in the meteor strike, but the neutral one appeared for one episode and then simply vanished."

"That's a good question." Himiko said "This soap actually has a sequel starring Carlos, where this question is answered. That is actually my favorite soap of all time, but I needed you two to watch this first to understand the context."

Himiko took the remote control and pressed a few buttons in it.

"It's time to begin the second marathon."

Kokichi and Tenko were too stunned to try and stop her.


	5. Rantaro's Stories 1-1

Since the academy grounds were designed to be used by the sixteen ultimates for an extended period of time, it was natural that they would have a few places dedicated to rest and recreation.

It was in one of those places that the Ultimates had gathered for another activity together, since different from Himiko's magic show, it wasn't something that needed overly elaborate preparations.

In fact, they were barely any different from what a group of ordinary teenagers would do while hanging out together.

They had brought together a few chairs, a sofa, and some cushions so they could have places to sit comfortably. Kirumi took the time to prepare a few snacks, drinks and sweets and put them in a cart in the middle of the space, where each of the teenagers would be able to reach easily.

However, that was pretty much the extent of the preparations they did. Nothing more was needed, because what they would do would be listen to one of Rantaro's stories about finally meeting his sisters again.

"There is something I wanted to know." Kaede said, once they were all settled down.

She was looking at Rantaro, who was sitting in a special position, facing all the others, since he was the one they would be listening to.

"What is it, Kaede?" Rantaro asked.

"Why is Shuuichi here, instead of with you?" She motioned to the Detective, sitting in a cushion next to hers "I mean, not that I mind his current position..." She smiled slightly "But he is also involved in the story, isn't he? Shouldn't he help in telling it?"

Said boy blushed and looked down, murmuring something no one could quite catch.

"Shuuichi isn't really the best at telling stories." Rantaro said "He'll still make a few comments once in a while, but mostly it'll be me."

"Then what will be the story you will be telling us this time?" Kirumi asked.

"Since this is the first story, I intend to start from the beginning." He said "In talking about the first of my younger sisters that we managed to find, who was right here in Japan." He smirked "This is also the story of how we came into contact with Japan's number one assassin organization."

At those words, Maki glared at Rantaro, but only he and Shuuichi noticed. The detective felt chills in his spine but the adventurer didn't really seem to care.

"Are you sure that's alright?" Kaito asked "I mean... People are watching this."

"You don't need to worry about that. That happened years ago, so the organization should have already made more than enough changes to make this information useless." Rantaro argued "Besides, it's not like I'm going to go into too much detail about specifics, since it wouldn't make a good story."

"In that case, I guess there's no need to worry." Kaito agreed.

"So, does anyone else have anything to say?" Rantaro asked the others. When no one answered, he continued "In that case, please allow me to start by setting the scene."

He put his hands together as if framing a picture, and spoke "Imagine me and Shuuichi, two twelve year old boys walking around on a certain street of a certain city in the west of Japan..."

+0+

Rantaro had been quite surprised when Shuuichi said that it was likely that one of his sisters was still in Japan. Yet, the detective presented a very compelling theory, backed up by correlations of facts such as disappearance rates, abnormalities in crime indexes and analysis of territorial features.

From that, he deduced the existence of some type of hidden group, and got an impression about their area of activity. Combining that information with Rantaro's reports of when and where he had lost his sisters, as well as an extremely detailed study of transportation factors he had compiled during his first months as a disappearance detective, Shuuichi came to the conclusion that the group was involved on the disappearance of one of Rantaro's sisters.

Specifically, a girl who was two years younger than Rantaro, Camila. Apparently, based on the time and place she disappeared, there were very few ways in which she could have left Japan without notice, making the involvement of that organization sound like a very plausible possibility, specially considering their "known" activities.

+0+

"That's... really impressive." Ryoma said, looking at Shuuichi "Specially considering that you were apparently right. How could you deduce things to that point?"

Shuuichi sighed "It's complicated. I could give you all the technical explanation, but it would be really long and Kirumi would probably be the only one who would understand it." He put his hands together "Essentially, my method goes backwards, first looking at places where the people might have gone to before trying to connect them with their circumstances."

"Interesting approach." Korekiyo said.

"Well, going back to the story..." Rantaro continued.

+0+

"Are you sure this is the place?" Rantaro asked Shuuichi "Because it doesn't seem to be any different from any of the other small cities we passed by on the way here."

"That's basically the idea." Shuuichi said "This place doesn't stand out. But I am very sure. There are many disturbances in shipping manifestos and such things revolving around this place. It is definitely an important location for the organization, so we should be able to find a trail to follow by looking here."

"Then we should start looking." Rantaro decided.

And that was what they did. Rantaro had developed several methods to search for information ever since he decided to go looking for his sisters, and Shuuichi mostly left the initiative to him and simply looked and listened around.

Rantaro did things like talk to the owner of a sweets shop about how the two of them would go around exploring the nearby places (which caused the man to warn them not to go to some places which were particularly dangerous, and thus possibilities to consider), and looking around in different places, looking for concern signs such as people looking over their shoulders and otherwise acting paranoid.

They finally hit the jackpot when Rantaro bought a sandwich to a homeless man and asked if there was anything strange in the town.

"There's a warehouse at the end of the third street." The man said "Most places like it I can squat into to sleep at night, but there I tried once but then a bunch of guards appeared. I was almost beaten up!" He sounded aggrieved about that.

After they left, Rantaro asked Shuuichi:

"Do you think that's the one?"

"It's possible, but we'd have to get inside to find out." Shuuichi answered.

"Then let's get inside." Rantaro said, with a sharp grin.

Shuuichi sighed. In the little time he had known Rantaro, the detective had already understood that he would not be able to avoid doing crazy things while traveling with him to find his sisters.

+0+

"Wait a minute." Korekiyo interrupted "How long had you been traveling with Shuuichi by that point?" He asked Rantaro.

"It was the twelfth day..." Shuuichi was the one who answered the question with a distant look in his eyes.

"What could you even have done in twelve days to make Shuuichi like this, Rantaro?" Kaito asked.

"Let's see..." The adventurer started to think "We had to parachute out of planes three times..." He started.

"Twice, actually." Shuuichi corrected "The third time we didn't have parachutes, so we had to improvise with the things from the cargo hold that were falling along with us."

"Oh, yeah, I had forgotten about that." Rantaro nodded "We got involved in shootouts three times..."

"All of those were in the same day." Shuuichi added "And that was peanuts compared to some other places we would go into later. Japan has very strict gun laws after all."

"There was also the time we had to disarm a bomb." Rantaro said "We could have just ran away from the building, but it was a hospital, and there was no time to evacuate everyone."

"At least that was good practice for when I had to disarm more complex bombs later on." Shuuichi noted "The mechanisms of that bomb were actually pretty sloppy and easy to bypass."

"Also there was the car chase that later turned into a helicopter chase." Rantaro continued "I only managed to get away by using a dumpster and a truck as a makeshift ramp to jump off the bridge and into the river."

"Wait, you were driving at that age?" Kokichi asked "But that's illegal! Only an evil mastermind like me should do illegal things!"

"It was actually an electric car. Something I could drive even at that age." Rantaro appeased "Okay, it had a lot of modifications, but none of them were exactly illegal."

"Yay for technicalities." Shuuichi said dryly.

"And I guess that was it." Rantaro finished.

"Is this the way your life is...?" Ryoma asked, after a pause where everyone was processing things.

"That's the way it was." Rantaro said, shaking his head "During the beginning of my career as an adventurer, I ended up making many enemies, but over time I became more circumspect, and slowly lost enemies who gave up, got arrested or got taken out by other criminals.

"Things are more relaxing these days." Rantaro continued "Never boring, though."

"I'm almost jealous." Kaito admitted.

"Maybe we could travel together a little bit, then." Rantaro said "Now, going back to the story..."

+0+

Of course, they would not simply rush in. That was a good way to end up dead, regardless of what they found. Instead, the two spent three whole days scouting around the area, taking note of guard patterns, deliveries, and security measures.

At the end of that observation, Rantaro came up with an infiltration plan:

"Two o'clock in the afternoon. We jump the fence at this point." He pointed out a section in the map the two had drawn based on their observations.

"Ok, I'll bite. Why?" Shuuichi asked.

"First, this is a time where we don't need to worry about guards, since none of their patrol routes takes them close to here at this time." Rantaro started "Second, this point is close to the garages, which is a place with lots of hiding spots we can use to infiltrate further. And third..." He smiled "The only security camera watching that spot was installed improperly, and the light of the sun at that time of day causes enough glare to make it useless."

Shuuichi thought about it, and realized that it was indeed plausible, but there were still some concerns to note:

"And what about when we need to get out?" He asked, since it was the most pressing issue.

"No worries. I got out escape method right here." Rantaro said, patting his backpack.

Shuuichi understood what he was talking about immediately:

"Seriously, the glider again?" He asked, disbelieving "But even the top of that warehouse isn't all that high."

"I'm not planning on relying on simple height to allow us to glide away safely." Rantaro smirked.

Shuuichi sighed "And you're not gonna tell me anything else, huh? I guess I'll see it when we get there."

Once again, Shuuichi asked himself how was it that he had gotten used to that sort of thing so quickly.

+0+

Getting over the fence was easy, since putting advanced security measures on it would have made it suspicious, so the only thing to worry about was the barbed wire at the top of the fence, which they managed to surpass by the simple expedient of using a thick towel as a cover.

Quickly sneaking up to the entrance of the garages, Rantaro used a mirror to look over the corner and see where the cameras were inside it. Then he plotted a route up to the middle of the garage, one completely covered by the cars inside.

"Hm. So this is as far as we can get while being subtle." Rantaro muttered "Time to do the opposite, then."

And so he reached inside his backpack and took out a stone.

Shuuichi barely had any time to react before Rantaro suddenly stood up from his crouching position and threw the stone straight at one of the security cameras, piercing the lens and breaking it quite convincingly.

"Next step, making some noise." He looked at Shuuichi "Follow my lead."

And he started making his way back outside, only he was kicking cars while he passed, making their alarms go off. Shuuichi did the same thing on the ones Rantaro had missed, and soon the garage was a true cacophony of disparate noises.

After leaving the garage, Rantaro ran along the wall, on the blindspot of the cameras, Shuuichi right behind him. Rantaro got to a small, inconspicuous window and broke it with a glass breaker taken out of his backpack.

Rantaro jumped inside without hesitation before extending his arm outside to pull Shuuichi in as well. They were inside of a small storage room. It did not even have a security camera monitoring it.

"I hope the distraction was enough for that to pass unnoticed." Rantaro said "Otherwise, I'll be forced to improvise."

The two waited for an entire minute and a half, but it didn't seem like anyone had noticed the broken window. Rantaro unlocked the door and took a quick look around before closing it again.

"Where do you think we could find that 'trail' you mentioned, Shuuichi?" Rantaro asked him.

The detective put a hand to his chin, in deep thought:

"There must be some kind of record-keeping room. Perhaps a supervisor's office or something similar." He said, eventually "I would need a bit of time to check the documents, but..."

Rantaro nodded, and started thinking himself 'Just getting there would not be a problem, even if I don't know where the place is, but giving Shuuichi time to look through the documents is a harder proposition.'

Had their entry on the place been a little more circumspect, Rantaro would seriously consider the possibility of hiding inside the warehouse until night and exploring during the changes of guards, but the broken window was a ticking time bomb, and they did not have such a leisure.

He turned his eyes back to the storage room, and noticed a small trolley. That gave him the seed of an idea, and the adventurer looked at the items in the storage to see if he could turn that seed into something concrete.

Rantaro's face slowly morphed into a smile as he found more and more items that could be of use.

+0+

The plan was extremely simple, and extremely gutsy, only made possible by the fact that the storage had contained a few spare sets of work clothing. Both Rantaro and Shuuichi changed themselves into those clothes, and they loaded up the trolley with a bunch of items, with Rantaro's backpack concealed within them.

And they simply left the storage room together with the trolley and started pushing it through the corridors, their heads low. They passed a few other workers, but none of them seemed to notice anything strange.

In fact, despite the constant tension of possibly being discovered, the journey to find their destination was almost boring. The two simply kept their heads low, acted as if they were going somewhere specific, and kept an eye on the surroundings, in search of what they were looking for.

Eventually they found it, and that led to a new burst of action (as the two got inside and Rantaro muffled the mouth of the supervisor before tying him up), but then things fell into a lull again as Shuuichi examined records while Rantaro tried to force every single guard to stay away with sheer force of will.

It didn't work, or rather, didn't work well enough, as someone knocked on the door to the room before Shuuichi was done. Thankfully, there were no surveillance cameras in that room, or they wouldn't have been able to buy even that much time.

Shuuichi heard the knock, then he gathered up a whole ream of documents and said "The information should be in one of those. I'll just take it all." He showed an expression of distaste at the thought of having to 'cheat' like that.

Rantaro nodded, before dropping his voice a few octaves and shouting at the door in a panicked manner:

"There's intruders! … They've locked me inside. You must give the alarm!"

A few moments later, the two of them heard the noise of the person running off. Then Rantaro picked his backpack up again (they had dragged the trolley inside to make things less conspicuous), and both of them left the room and walked on the opposite direction the other guy had gone.

It didn't take long for the alarm to be raised, and that gave a good reason for the two to start running without attracting undue attention. And the chaos caused by it gave them a very good cover as they headed towards the top floor.

Still, things didn't go perfectly, which was why the two of them ended up having to run fast up the last few sets of stairs to get to the roof of the building, as they were being chased by guards.

And when they actually reached the top, only about fifteen seconds ahead of the pursuing guards, Shuuichi was surprised to see that Rantaro was actually calling someone on his cellphone.

"Who are you calling at a time like this?" Shuuichi asked, as he started unfolding the glider and securing himself to it.

"I'm calling the wind!" Rantaro declared with a huge grin.

Then he also tied himself to the glider and both of them jumped off the edge of the building at the same time as the guards burst into the roof.

Since the building was only three floors tall, they didn't get very far before falling down low enough that their feet were almost touching the nearby trees. But at that moment, a huge gust of wind suddenly picked up, shoving them forward at high speed and causing their glider to recover enough height so that it wasn't a problem anymore.

And that was how the two of them made their escape.

+0+

"Okay, you're gonna have to explain that." Ryoma said, looking at Rantaro.

"Okay, the answer is actually pretty simple." Rantaro said "There's a guy who created a machine that can create high speed winds in a localized area. He usually sells his services to help in extreme sports events, but he is also open to more private dealings for an... appropriate fee."

There was a long, long moment of silence as the other students considering what he had said. Shuuichi didn't blame them, he had reacted the same way when he heard it as well.

"So, is being rich like, your superpower?" Himiko asked.

Rantaro gave a startled laugh "No, there's lots of other people who are richer than me. It's just that I'm pretty good at knowing how to use my money."

"I approve of the concept." Kirumi said.

"But then what happened next?" Kaito asked "What was the trace you guys found on the documents?"

"Well..." Rantaro started.

+0+

The hint that Shuuichi eventually managed to obtain was a delivery address to a storage warehouse in another city. However, this storage was the type anyone could rent just by paying some money, and then someone else could come and grab it. It was a textbook dead drop.

That made it harder to track down the ultimate destination of those supplies, but not impossible. Rantaro had several ideas on how to do it, and since they were facing a dangerous shadowy organization, he eventually settled down on a plan that was astonishingly careful and hard to counter.

First, Rantaro had rented one of the rooms of an apartment building that had a line of sight to the specific storage unit that was being reserved by the organization. Shuuichi had been installed inside that apartment and was using binoculars to keep watch over that storage unit. It was already the second day of observation.

Rantaro wasn't in there with them, because he was responsible for a different part of the plan, but Shuuichi had a cellphone ready to call him when the time came. And patience was something that was necessary for that plan.

They had been prepared to wait for weeks, but it ended up not being necessary, as it was right on the second day when a person appeared to grab the things from the storage. Shuuichi carefully watched that person and called Rantaro.

"They're here." He said.

"Then I'm off." Rantaro answered.

On the other side of the line, Rantaro started his own part in the plan. He was currently waiting at a heliport on top of the highest building in the city. As soon as he got the call, Rantaro gestured towards the helicopter pilot, who started the engine and lifted off quickly.

The flight plan was already prepared, so there was no need to talk about it, and the pilot simply followed it, quickly rising in the air and moving west.

Eventually, it reached the agreed upon point, and Rantaro nodded at the pilot and jumped out of the helicopter. And while most people would enjoy the feeling of free fall for a while before opening their parachutes, he did so almost immediately, dooming himself to a very long glide downwards.

But that was exactly the point.

Rantaro soon received a message on his cellphone, which he was wearing on a special pocket on his parachutist's outfit. It consisted of only three characters: '3-4'.

Nodding, he took a pair of binoculars from another pocket and used them to look at a specific red stop sign. The looked at the third row of cars stopped there and found the fourth car in that row. That was the meaning of the message.

Shuuichi had watched which truck had been used to load up the supplies, and that red stop sign was a place every car coming out of of the storage facility had to stop at. So the plan had been to time Rantaro's start of gliding down with the moment where the truck would be in place.

It worked out perfectly, and Rantaro simply had to avoid losing sight of that truck as he slowly dropped down from the sky. That was the best option, since trying to follow the truck with a taxi or something would be way too conspicuous, but in this way, no one would be able to realize what he was doing.

+0+

"And then what?" Kokichi asked "Where did that truck stop at?"

Rantaro then smiled mysteriously and said "At a place called Silver Lyre Orphanage."

Shuuichi suddenly felt shivers running down his spine. He had been dreading the possibility ever since Rantaro started telling the story, but apparently his personality still hadn't changed, and he wanted to play with fire.

The detective resolutely did not look at Maki.


	6. Rantaro's Stories 1-2

Of course, after that the two of them had started investigating the orphanage, slowly learning more and more strange things about it, thus becoming ever more convinced that this was the right place. Initially, they did so in a very circumspect way, to avoid attracting the attention of that surely very dangerous organization, but eventually...

"I guess we really reached the limit of what we could do with subtlety..." Shuuichi sighed.

"Yeah, but are you sure you want to go through with this? You could hide away while I do this plan." Rantaro proposed.

"No, I already decided." Shuuichi said, a lot more firmly than he usually talked "I'm going to see this through to the end. And I'm sure that even more dangerous things will happen as we seek your other sisters, but I'm still here, aren't I?"

+0+

Rantaro had to stifle a laugh at seeing the _look_ Kaede gave Shuuichi upon hearing that, and how red he became in response.

+0+

Their plan was simple, and yet it was also exceedingly risky in a way that bordered on recklessness. The first step was to deliberately expose themselves.

Their appearances had been captured on the security cameras when they went on their previous expedition, so if they were to be seen sniffing around the area of the orphanage, which was definitely an important place... There would definitely be a reaction.

And so that was what they did, going into the orphanage under the very flimsy cover of being students working on a project. They managed to take a good look around the grounds of the place and didn't find anything interesting, but they didn't need to. The duo proceeded to take a taxi back to their apartment, where Rantaro paid their next three weeks in advance before giving the owner a piece of paper and some instructions.

The bait set, the two left the place and hid themselves on a previously prepared safehouse, where they would wait for further developments.

+0+

"So..." Kaito spoke "What exactly was that bait you were talking about? Don't be so coy, Rantaro."

Said boy smirked before explaining "I instructed the guy to give the paper to anyone who showed up asking about me. And I also told him they had permission to go into my apartment."

Kokichi started laughing loudly. Everyone looked at him, who managed to get himself under control for long enough to say "So you just skipped the middle man." Before going back to laughing.

Rantaro nodded and explained "Those sorts of organizations always have ways of finding information, so they would end up in the apartment and get access to my apartment anyway, so why not use that to my advantage?

"Inside the room there were a few hidden cameras broadcasting to a webpage we could access from the safehouse. And in the piece of paper was a description of my sister and the date of her abduction, together with a phone number to contact me about it." He finished.

"Well... Things are really getting interesting." Korekiyo commented.

+0+

The two of them only had to wait one day and a half before the trick gave results. The cameras got pretty good shots of the three men who got inside the apartment. Shuuichi had already made a few lists of possible organization members based on connections he had worked out from the official orphanage files, so it didn't take long for the trio to be identified, getting him a few steps closer to the chain of command.

Rantaro's part of the plan, however, started when the phone he had reserved for the occasion started ringing.

"Hello, I presume you have a lot of questions." Rantaro said after picking up the phone.

"And you have a lot of things to explain, mostly having to do with who are you, and what are you trying to do." Came the voice on the phone, a voice that was both deep and cold.

"Those two are easy. You already know what I want. Camila Amami is her name. And who am I should be simplicity itself to determine just by following that simple clue." Rantaro said "However, a much more important question would be: What should be the next step? I'm sure you guys must want to do something about me, and I'm ready to negotiate."

There was silence on the other end for a bit, before the voice came back "What type of negotiation do you suggest?"

"It would be pointless to say it now." Rantaro spoke firmly "I doubt any of you three are high up enough to decide anything important on your own. Pass the message up to your bosses and then call again when you have specific instructions." He hung up.

+0+

Kirumi clapped politely at hearing that, and Maki even showed something approximating a smile, which was noticed by a few of the other students, who didn't think it worthy of mention. Miu and Tenko laughed, imagining the expression on the face of the guy.

"It took a few hours for them to call me back, and during that time Shuuichi had left to advance his investigation." He nodded at the detective, signaling for him to talk.

Everyone looked at Shuuichi, who sighed before speaking "It wasn't anything special. I just called the place one of the guys worked at and pretended to be his wife."

"A classic technique." Tsumugi said with a nod, causing the others to laugh.

"I made up a story about him accidentally taking with him a document I needed to pay a bill." Shuuichi continued "And I managed to get the guy on the other line to look at his desk for me, and there were a few documents there that pointed towards his 'secret activities'."

"That's some really hardcore detectiving." Ryoma joked "I'm impressed."

"Returning to my part of the story." Rantaro spoke up "The call came, and we set up a spot for us to meet for the negotiation."

"Which was a trap." Kaede said, without any doubt in her voice.

"It was absolutely a trap." Rantaro confirmed "But I still intended to go there, because a trap needs to have bait, and I was very interested on what kind of bait they would set."

+0+

The place that was set up for the meeting was a small cafe in the west zone of the city. Rantaro arrived there at 1:50 in the afternoon, ten minutes before the start of the negotiation. As he had expected, the three men he was meeting had already arrived, and he demanded that things be started earlier, since he didn't want to waste time.

"So, I don't need to explain what sort of leverage I have in this negotiation." Rantaro started "What have you brought to the table to discuss with me?"

The three men seemed annoyed at Rantaro once again taking a dominant position, but after a few moments one of them took out a laptop from his bag, Rantaro waited as he powered it on and navigated the menus.

Finally, the man turned the screen to face Rantaro, who couldn't avoid pounding the table in surprise.

Because he was looking at the photo of a young girl. That girl was Camila Amami, the sister he had been trying to track down. There was no doubt about it. And she looked older than the last time he had seen her. About as old as she would be at present time.

Rantaro made his expression blank again, but his emotions were harder to get under control. He had been looking for his sisters and hoping to find them for so long, and that was the first time he had seen such a strong clue. The first time he had been so close.

"Yes. That is indeed something I am interested in." Rantaro said "Now, the next step is discussing what your demands could be."

The leading man smirked, having noticed Rantaro's reaction "First of all, you're not the only person involved. Where is the other boy?"

"Ah, he's right outside watching things." Rantaro lied, pointing to the window.

The three men turned to look and Rantaro took the opportunity to swipe the laptop and run.

+0+

Rantaro had to stop his story because Kokichi was laughing too hard. Kaito wasn't any different, and the others expressed amusement each their own ways.

"Yeah. Sometimes being a good adventurer means doing things that are so ridiculous no one can see coming." Rantaro commented.

"It took a few seconds for the men to react." Rantaro continued after things had settled down "By that point I had already run out through the back door, put the laptop on my backpack and removed my climbing equipment, which I used to climb up the nearby building.

"It had only three floors, and I was a fairly good climber, so when they arrived at the bottom and tried to shoot at me, I was already about to reach the top." Rantaro continued.

+0+

From there, he took out his glider and used it to glide over the gap between that building and the next one, and then to jump off the side of that building and slow his fall to reach the ground.

It was just in time, as a bullet passed through the place where he had been just after his jump.

Rantaro ran to a small parking lot nearby and got into his escape route, a car with a private driver he had hired specifically for that situation.

"You seem to be in a hurry." The driver, whose name was Arita Hokoshi, spoke while driving out.

"Yeah." Rantaro agreed "There was a sniper, so I don't think I have managed to lose track of them yet." He sighed "We may need to take a dive."

"Ah, so it's one of _those_ jobs." Arita commented.

+0+

Rantaro stopped again, this time because Gonta had an expression of absolute confusion.

"That guy was a bodyguard specialized in defensive driving, to sum things up." Rantaro said "And it was really useful, because I was right, and we ended up in a car chase involving three cars and a motorcycle.

"Arita managed to prevent a crash, despite every one of those pursuers trying to stop us, but eventually we were forced to drive off a bridge and into a river, where I had to use the diving equipment stored in the car to escape." He finished.

"Where do you even find those kinds of people?" Kaede asked, exasperated "And what happened to the laptop?"

"You meet a lot of interesting people while traveling around." Rantaro gave a non-answer "And thankfully my backpack was waterproof, so I didn't need to worry about the computer."

+0+

When Rantaro managed to get to safety, he checked the metadata of the photo. They had never expected for him to steal the laptop itself, so they didn't bother to erase that. From the metadata, Rantaro got a time the photo was taken (in the previous day), and the GPS location where it was taken (a medium-sized city in the north of Hokkaido).

He sent the information to Shuuichi, who asked for the two to gather back up at that city, saying that he still needed to cross-reference some things, but he was getting close to a breakthrough. Rantaro took a plane, but he was careful not to select a flight going directly there, as it wouldn't be a surprise if they were to be watching for those kinds of things.

He also used several anti-tracking techniques to make sure the organization wouldn't be able to follow him into the plane, as that would be a problem.

+0+

"And it worked!" Rantaro declared "Mostly." He admitted.

"Mostly?" Kaede asked.

"You see, by the time they had any idea which plane I was taking, the flight was already halfway over, which I thought would be good enough." Rantaro said "However, I underestimated the assassin they sent." He shook his head "Somehow, she managed to get into the plane in mid-flight. And I still have no idea how that worked."

"She?" Korekiyo asked in surprise.

"Yeah. I only realized that later, but the assassin that was coming after me during the final day was a girl." Rantaro said "And yeah, somehow she managed to get inside a high-altitude plane." He looked at Maki "Do you have any idea how she might have done that, Maki?"

"No." She answered flatly.

Rantaro smirked and Shuuichi facepalmed, Kaede watched the interplay with confusion.

"Anyway, that was almost the end for me, but thankfully I managed to react in time when the knife came in my direction..."

+0+

Rantaro had barely managed to take a glance at the hooded figure who appeared next to his seat when a sharp knife came straight at his neck.

In a single motion, Rantaro threw the blanket he was covered with at the attacked and rolled into the ground. It was so incredibly close that he could feel the air being cut next to his skin.

The blanket landed perfectly on the hooded figure, but was then sliced to pieces, overall gaining no more than half a second of leeway for Rantaro. He used that time as best as he could, continuing his roll to end up on the opposite corridor to the attacker and standing up.

Everyone else in the plane was sleeping, so he wouldn't have any help, but that also meant none of them would be in the way. Was Rantaro's assessment after a glance. He then saw the assassin's dagger shift position slightly, and leaped further in the corridor.

It was just in time, because the enemy moved so fast she seemed to teleport, immediately crossing the barrier of the seats and stabbing at Rantaro's previous position.

At that moment, Rantaro felt the shadow of fear pass over his heart. That was far too fast. He wouldn't be able to evade her in such a confined space. The terror made his brain work on overdrive, and he got a vague idea that such extreme movement should be fairly difficult and precise to pull off.

In the instants while the assassin was resetting her position to dash again, Rantaro decided to trust in that idea, and took out a plastic soda bottle out of his backpack, slamming it into the ground and causing an explosion of liquid to spread through the corridor.

He turned away and ran to the closest emergency door of the airplane, hoping that it would have been enough to prevent another super dash in his direction, which wasn't something he could dodge in that situation.

Moving faster than he had ever done before, Rantaro reached the door and opened it with precise, sure movements. He had practice with that. In the same movement, he also threw himself out the door, again narrowly evading being killed by the enemy.

+0+

"I had a portable parachute inside my backpack, as well as the glider." Rantaro said "I decided to use the parachute, since it needed less setup."

Kokichi was looking sad and talking to himself "A whole bottle... I know it was a matter of life and death but..." While Tenko tried to cheer him up.

"Wow, man. That really sounds like a scary situation." Kaito commented.

Rantaro nodded "And the worst part was, I still hadn't escaped from danger." He stopped briefly at Kaito's incredulous look "Yeah. The assassin wasn't going to let me escape so easily. She jumped out of the plane and managed to maneuver in my direction, falling right on top of my parachute."

"That's some real devotion to your work." Kirumi commented.

Rantaro smirked "Yeah, it was. I released myself from the parachute just in time to dodge, as she was aiming for the center of it. I took out the glider and started setting it up, and I finished just as she cut through the rest of the parachute." He sighed "And just before I managed to glide off, I was able to get a glance of the assassin."

"And what was up with her?" Kaito asked.

"It was just a glance, but I could tell that she was young. Really young, like the same age as me at the time. That was also when I realized she was a girl." Rantaro said.

"Those bastards!" Kaito clenched his fists "Who would make such a young girl into an assassin? That's not right!"

Maki looked at him in something resembling shock, before her expression changed back to neutral and she gave an approving nod.

Rantaro smiled "Ah, but if that makes the situation any better, I can tell you that despite falling all the way to the ground, that girl still survived, and wasn't even badly hurt, since she still came after me later."

"Wow, that's pretty amazing." Kaito noted.

+0+

After landing, Rantaro ran to the nearest road and managed to flag down a car to give him a ride to his destination. He insisted on getting off at the outskirts of the city, not wanting to have that person take any extra risks.

By the time he was entering the city, the sun had finally risen, and Rantaro called Shuuichi to see how things were going.

Apparently, he was already finishing the last of the work he had to, and was almost at the point where he wanted to reach. However, in the process of looking around for more information he had been spotted and forced to escape hastily, and by that point he was hiding inside an office building, knowing that they were looking for him. Rantaro also explained what had happened to him.

Rantaro considered his options "How long do you think it will take to finish your research and send it?" He asked.

"Maybe half an hour?" Shuuichi guessed "But it would be difficult without being able to move around."

"Then I have an idea. I just got here, so they will definitely come after me if I don't hide. You can use that time to finish things off." Rantaro said "I can dodge them for forty minutes, which should be enough."

"Are you sure about that?" Shuuichi asked.

"Positive." Rantaro answered "Camila is so close now... I'm not going to fail at this point."

"Understood. I'll see you later, then." And Shuuichi hung up.

Rantaro called for a taxi and asked for a ride up to the building which had been the photograph place. He stopped there just long enough for the surveillance to pick him up.

The hunt was on.

+0+

"And of course, as soon as I thought that, I spotted the same hooded assassin from before, walking casually in the crowd in my direction." Rantaro said.

"I can't really imagine how it must have felt." Kaede commented.

"Yeah, it was pretty scary, but the situation was different that time." Rantaro grinned "I wasn't in a closed space anymore, but inside a city, so there were a lot more things that I could do.

"I took off running, and the next thirty minutes were like the most high stakes game of tag in the world. I ran into buildings, sometimes climbing stairs, sometimes jumping out of windows. Timed myself to use the traffic as a shield, used the climbing tools and once even threw a bunch of money into the air to cause a commotion. Commotions are always nice." He told.

"Honestly. I'm surprised that the assassin was trying to kill you in broad daylight." Tenko said.

"She wasn't openly bearing the knife, so that wasn't so strange. In fact, the fact that she couldn't do so was one of the reasons why I was able to stay ahead of her." Rantaro said "And I think the plan was to cut my throat, lean me against a wall and be away before anyone even noticed I was dead."

Rantaro sighed "Still, it was very tiring, so when I got the call from Shuuichi that was the signal everything was ready... I was relieved. I wouldn't have been able to keep going for much longer.

"It only took about five more minutes after that, but the assassin suddenly stopped, apparently because of receiving a message on her own cellphone." Rantaro said "At that moment, I finally managed to get a good look at her face."

"And how did she look?" Kaito asked. Maki stiffened almost imperceptibly.

Rantaro shrugged "She looked just like a normal girl." He shook his head "She was actually pretty cute, kinda like a younger Maki."

Said girl glared death at Rantaro, Shuuichi did a double facepalm.

"I guess she must really have been cute, then." Kaito said.

"Shut up." Maki ordered, blushing slightly.

"But why did she just stop?" Ryoma asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" Kokichi smirked "Shuuichi's thing must have worked."

Everyone looked at the detective. He swallowed but nodded and spoke his part of the story.

+0+

Shuuichi knew that to get access to Camila and escape the organization, they would need a pretty big leverage. And that meant going all the way to the top, and reaching directly at one of the leaders.

Following the trail he had managed to pick up, Shuuichi was able to slowly figure out an entire network of suspicious connections, which led him to a man called Otori Ikinatsu. He had changed his life completely over the previous three years, going from a simple salaryman to a top-level manager in his company.

Shuuichi gathered all sorts of information about him, connecting his person to a variety of suspicious activity and people. However, his great breakthrough had come from watching old surveillance footage from varied places in the city where he had been living before.

Shuuichi used fast forward to go through countless hours of footage, but it ended up being worth it, for in one particular video recorded fourteen months before, there was unmistakably Otori walking together with Camila and stopping on a cafe to eat breakfast. She didn't seem scared in the footage, which made Shuuichi's mind go into overdrive with possibilities.

Combining it all together, the evidence was mostly circumstantial, but Shuuichi wasn't trying to make a court case, he just wanted to allow Rantaro to reunite with his sister. So, he was going to use that evidence, and some informed guesses to make an enormous bluff.

He sent the organized file to Otori Ikinatsu, together with a message saying that if he didn't want all of that to be publicized, he had better call him for a real negotiation (there was a number to call included). From there, Shuuichi simply waited and hoped that it would be enough.

When the call came, Shuuichi was extremely relieved, but tried his best to play it cool.

"What do you want?" The voice was belligerent, but Shuuichi could detect an undercurrent of fear.

"First things first: Call back your assassin." Shuuichi spoke firmly "There is a timed release for those files, which will definitely send then to the media if something happens to us. I'm sure the older members would see you as a liability at that point, and then you'd be the one feeling a knife on your neck."

There was a few moments of silence "Understood, I'll do it."

"Then I'll call you back once that's done with." Shuuichi said, and hung up.

+0+

Hearing that, Kaito started clapping for Shuuichi, and soon all the others followed his example, making him very embarrassed.

Seeing that, Rantaro decided to close out the tale himself:

"Anyway, we ended up setting a meeting where I was able to see Camila again." Rantaro smiled joyfully "She explained that Otori had been a low-level goon who noticed that she had a talent with filing and managerial matters, and ended up making use of it to rise in the ranks of the organization. She was pretty much an unofficial ultimate by that point, which turned out to be kind of a theme with my sisters."

"Really?" Korekiyo asked, eyebrow raised.

"Yeah. But at the end of the meeting we had to say goodbye again." He shook his head "She wasn't the only one that I wanted to find, and while I could potentially bring her away, that would set the organization off and make things much more complicated, so she asked to stay there for the time, since she wasn't really in such a terrible situation.

"Still, I promised to come back for her after saving all my other sisters." Rantaro said "And I did end up fulfilling my promise, though it wasn't exactly how I expected it to go. Still, that is a story for later."

"Come on, man. You're going to leave us hanging like this?" Kaito complained.

"I need to tell things in order, don't I?" Rantaro teased "The next sister I found turned out to be involved in some very complex things, so you'll like that story as well."

With that said, Rantaro grabbed a cup of water to drink, his throat was parched.


	7. Kirumi's Requests 1

**Tenko's Request – Aikido Training**

"Before we decide anything, I hope you'll tell me what are the specific objectives of your training request." Kirumi spoke to Tenko, after she had asked for help with Aikido Training.

"My objective is simple, I want to improve my Neo Aikido as much as possible!" Tenko stated confidently "I can't simply stagnate during the time I spend here. So instead I shall train as hard as I can while also playing as hard as I can. That's the spirit of my Neo Aikido!"

"I understand." Kirumi said with a nod "I do believe there are some forms of training where we can take advantage of our current situation. If I'm not mistaken, one of the basic tenets of Neo Aikido is that the training needs to prepare for real situations, isn't it?"

"Exactly! You really know a lot about Neo Aikido, Kirumi!" Tenko confirmed with a broad smile on her face "Neo Aikido is designed to be effective in any kind of real world situation, because-" She suddenly looked panicked and stopped talking "Because... Because that is the standard that all martial arts should strive for!" She concluded hastily.

Kirumi completely ignored her suspicious behavior "In that case, I believe there are a few training methods I can help you with. But before that, I need to make an accurate assessment of your basic physical parameters and levels of skill, so I can tailor the trainings properly."

After that, Tenko went through a very embarrassing couple of hours as Kirumi did some very thorough examinations of her body and movements.

+0+

Later, the two went to one of the spare meeting rooms scattered across the place, in order to discuss the specifics.

Eventually, it was decided that Tenko's training would be divided into two different forms. One where she would show up to certain spots at certain times, and have to deal with whatever Kirumi had prepared there. The other was the "surprise training", where Tenko would be ambushed at random times and forced to deal with the situations Kirumi set up.

The Ultimate Maid had assured Tenko that every bit of training she was about to go through would be designed both to push her to her limits and to acquire real world skills.

Still, Tenko wasn't quite prepared for what that meant, as was proven by what happened when they were done with their discussion.

+0+

"So, when is the training going to start?" Tenko asked Kirumi, eager.

"It already started." Kirumi answered.

And before Tenko could even process what the other girl had said, Tenko's half of the room suddenly exploded.

Kirumi watched as Tenko seemed to be buried under the broken off pieces of the room, but a few seconds later, the Aikido master dug herself out of the pile, having grabbed a table to use as cover in the instants before being crushed.

"That was sudden." Tenko said.

Kirumi took note of the injury on Tenko's left hand, and shook her head "You should have been able to avoid all injuries if you protected yourself perfectly, but it seems like you need some more training."

Tenko smiled awkwardly, knowing that Kirumi was right, but wondering what kind of training the maid had in mind.

+0+

She got the start of her answer on the next day, while she was doing her usual morning training. A Monokuma delivered a package to her, and inside the package were a complicated set of binding restraints as well as instructions to go to a specific building, far away from any of the areas she had explored before.

With a sinking feeling, Tenko went there, bringing the bindings with her. Going inside, Tenko realized that the building was some kind of warehouse, with three floor tall shelves holding all kinds of miscellaneous objects, from kitchen supplies to pieces of sports equipment, all of them piled up haphazardly and seeming like they could fall over at any time.

Tenko walked around the warehouse until she found the thing that had been mentioned on the instructions: A laptop sitting on the ground. Pressing a key made the screen light up, showing a video feed of Kirumi.

"Ah, Tenko. Just in time." Kirumi spoke to her "I assume you're wondering what you're going to do here."

"Yes." Tenko said respectfully, treating Kirumi like a master.

"First, you need to put on those bindings to completely restrain your arms. Do you need any help with that?" Kirumi asked.

"No." Tenko shook her head "I already thought it should be something like that, so I took a look to see how they work." She motioned to the belt-like bindings.

Kirumi nodded, and Tenko quickly got to work of wrapping herself with the bindings. There were layers upon layers to restrain her arms completely from hands to shoulders, and to force them to her back.

It took some very creative movements and a lot of flexibility, but eventually Tenko managed to make it work. And upon that she realized that even putting on the bindings could already be considered a form of training.

"What do I do now?" She asked Kirumi.

The maid smiled "Your goal is simple. You need to prevent the Monokuma legion from messing up the warehouse."

"Monokuma legion...?" Tenko didn't understand for a moment, but then her blood ran cold.

All around the warehouse, dozens and dozens of Monokumas appeared and started giggling. One of them dropped behind one of the piles of materials and started pushing it forward.

"Ah!" Tenko yelled and dashed forward at as close to full speed as she could get without using her arms.

It was still too slow, by the time she got close, the top of the pile was leaning further and further, about to topple.

However, Tenko would not allow herself to fail so easily. Leaping into the air, she spun into a kick with exactly the amount of force needed to force the pile back into position, incidentally squishing the Monokuma behind it.

She did not have time to celebrate that initial achievement, however. As soon as she landed back on the ground, Tenko saw that another Monokuma was pushing another pile even further away. And that pile was very high up.

Taking off like a racing car, Tenko covered the distance in three explosive steps, but the height was another matter, and she quickly saw that her previous technique wouldn't work as there wasn't enough time for a jump.

So instead, Tenko clambered up the shelf, using both knees and feet to force herself higher with more speed. Even then, she almost didn't have enough time to avoid the fall, having to hit the leaning pile with her head while still going up.

It succeeded, but then Tenko saw that another Monokuma was pushing yet another pile, so instead of allowing herself to fall back down, she instead climbed to the top of the shelf and jumped at the direction of her next target, then kicked off the roof to accelerate her downward motion.

The next hour was a blur of high speed movement and extremely precise strength exertion. Kirumi had apparently calculated quite well, as each pile was just barely possible to save, as long as she exerted herself to her limits every time.

Eventually though, things calmed down, and Tenko finally allowed herself to stop, happy for having actually managed to succeed in that particular training... And promptly fell down onto her face.

Apparently she had been wrong, she wasn't exerting herself to her limits, but just slightly beyond them, and the result was that she wasn't gonna be able to move for a while.

Well, at least it was effective training.

+0+

And so it went. The trainings were very varied, but all exceedingly difficult, ranging from crossing a swamp like area by running across tiny wooden posts while having to catch (not dodge or block) hundreds of baseballs shot at her from every direction. All the way to having to cross the entire area of the show while avoiding the notice of any of an extremely large number of floating drone cameras that moved around in complex patterns.

Her strength, flexibility, awareness, agility and everything else were tested in a hellish training regimen. It was a time of pain and suffering, but Tenko could pretty much feel herself growing stronger.

So, when Kirumi said that it was time for the final test, she was somewhat reluctant.

"Final, really?" She asked "I don't feel like I'm that close to my limits yet..."

Kirumi smiled at her "Not your absolute limits, no. But you've actually gotten close to the point where resting and allowing your body to recover is the best path to strength." She shook her head "I can give you a program to follow after some time of rest, but this test is going to be the last training you do for a while."

"I understand." Tenko said, nodding at the other girl "So, what do I have to do this time?"

They were in the same meeting room as they had started at, now fixed. Kirumi placed a map of the surroundings on top of the table and pointed to a certain spot "You go here, and then wait until I come. After that, do what seems to make the most sense."

Tenko nodded, already imagining what it was that she was going to have to deal with that time.

+0+

The place Tenko had to wait at was a broad bridge, that seemed a little bit like overkill, since it covered almost the entire lake that it had been built to cross. It was a curious place, to be sure.

After getting there, Tenko didn't simply wait. Instead she used the free time to limber up and get her gears going, so that she could react quickly and accurately to whatever happened. That turned out to be a wise choice, because it definitely wasn't anything she expected.

Making a curve around a nearby building, it was a car. And it was quickly accelerating and heading straight for her. And then Tenko realized that Kirumi was the one driving the car.

"What?" She couldn't help but mutter.

As if in response, Kirumi stretched her right hand out of the car, showing that she was holding a sign that said: "It's okay. I have a license."

'Ah, that's fine then.' Tenko thought 'This must be an electric car or something of that nature.'

That question answered, Tenko widened her stance and prepared herself as the car came closer and closer at high speed. She was going to need to be very quick and precise in order to deal with that, so as the car came ever closer, Tenko started estimating its weight and speed, as well as the particular strain each of the pieces was under.

And at the last possible moment, she _moved_.

Tenko slid at the car, bending herself over so much she was almost laying on the ground. While going under the front part of the car, she kicked upwards at a precise angle, making the front wheels leave the ground for a few moments.

Then she kicked forwards with her other leg, extending herself the maximum distance in order to hit a precise spot, breaking a specific mechanism on the underside of the car that controlled the handbrake. And with that, said brake released and came into contact with the ground.

Finally, Tenko left herself flat to allow the rest of the car to pass over her, before getting up to watch what happened.

Without being able to retrieve the handbrake, Kirumi had no choice but to allow the car to slow down to a stop.

Tenko got up as Kirumi left the car "How did I do?" She asked, with a mixture of eagerness and trepidation.

Kirumi nodded at her "You have succeeded."

"Yay!" Tenko threw her arms to the air and celebrated.

"Though I must admit I'm a bit surprised." Kirumi said "I expected you to use the car's momentum to force it to crash, instead of what you did."

"I thought about it." Tenko admitted "But it's pretty hard to do that kind of thing while guaranteeing the safety of the people inside. You would have been fine, but this is training for real situations, where it wouldn't be you behind the wheel."

"So it's a goal to pursue for later training." Kirumi said.

"Yeah! Good point!" Tenko agreed, and then sat down on the ground "But that really tired me out. Doing things so fast takes a lot out of you."

"Would you like some juice?" Kirumi asked, offering up a glass of strawberry juice she had taken from... somewhere.

"Thank you!" Tenko accepted the glass and started drinking it, while looking at the sky.

It was another beautiful day.


End file.
